Border czar Tom Homan clashed with “This Week” guest host Jonathan Karl over the Trump administration’s efforts to deport members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA).
United States District Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia issued an injunction March 15 ordering the Trump administration to turn around two planes carrying members of the Venezuelan gang to El Salvador. Homan erupted when Karl raised the issue of “due process” with the deportations.
“Due process — where is Laken Riley’s due process? Where are all these young women killed and raped by members of the TdA? Where was their due process? The young woman on the subway, where is her due process?” Homan asked Karl.
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“The bottom line is, that plane was full of people designated as terrorists, number one. Number two, every Venezuelan migrant on that flight was a TdA member based on numerous criminal investigations, on intelligence reports, and a lot of work by ICE officers,” Homan added. “As a matter of fact, two days after that flight took off, I even had a discussion with the acting director of ICE, and he reiterated that every person, every Venezuelan on that plane was a known member of the TdA. So, a lot of officers, criminal investigators, special agents who have done this for decades, looked at the intelligence information, the criminal investigation information, all the various social media and surveillance and government records and public records and they are confident they’re all members of the TdA.”
Upon taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued several executive orders to address illegal immigration, including designating Mexican drug cartels, TdA and MS-13, an El Salvadoran prison gang, as foreign terrorist organizations. TdA is a violent gang whose members have allegedly been involved in the takeover of apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado, kidnapping and murder.
“They were given due process according to the laws on the books. See, that’s the difference between the Trump Administration and the Biden Administration,” Homan said. “We’re actually using the laws on the books to enforce immigration laws and secure the border at the highest level it’s ever been.”
“The Biden Administration not only ignored the law, they violated the law like the district court and in district five said that not only were they violating the law, they were actually ignoring the law altogether,” Homan continued. “We are using the laws on the books to enforce our border immigration laws and enforcement. If you look, the border numbers are down 96%. We already got 40,000 criminals removed by I.C.E. In the interior which more was done in six weeks than the Biden administration did in a year. We’re using the laws on the books. We’re not making this up.”
The Border Patrol encountered millions of illegal immigrants since the start of fiscal year 2021, according to figures released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced Feb. 25 that only 200 illegal immigrants were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border, the lowest single-day total in 15 years.
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