Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tom Homan said Thursday it’s wrong for Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., to “play this political game” when it comes to the intentions of his agency.
Homan said that in the last fiscal year, 89 percent of illegal immigrants deported had a criminal history, and 88 percent of those deported in the last raid in Los Angeles were criminal aliens as well.
The ICE official said on “Fox & Friends” that Harris and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., have canceled three meetings with him over the past few months where he intended to lay out what ICE was doing. He also said Harris was wrong to say ICE was abusing their power by doing its job.
“You know, I’ve tried to meet with Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein on three separate occasions in the past two months to explain to them the facts of what ICE is doing, they’ve canceled every one of those meetings,” Homan said. “They don’t want to know the facts, they want to keep playing this political game, put smoke and mirrors up about what ICE is actually doing. She’s wrong.”
Homan said he has received multiple emails from California citizens thanking ICE for enforcing immigration laws. He also said the Department of Justice was not declaring war against California, like Gov. Jerry Brown, D-Calif., claimed, and said ICE was just prioritizing and enforcing the laws they are required to enforce.
“But let’s make something clear: there is no prerequisite that an alien has to commit yet another crime when they get to the United States to have the law enforced upon them,” Homan said. “I mean, we enforce immigration law, that is our job, that is our sworn oath and we are going to do it without apology.”
California is one of the many states that have established “sanctuary cities,” which states local government will not turn over illegal immigrants to federal officials.
California officials also go to some lengths to protect illegal immigrants from deportation. Last month, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, D-Calif., warned immigrants of a possible impending ICE raid happening as soon as the next day.
