Former Trump ICE director on border separations: ‘They chose to separate themselves’

The former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under President Trump on Thursday defended the administration’s border separation policies.

“I’m sick and tired hearing about the family separation,” Thomas Homan said while speaking in a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) panel. “You know, I’m still being sued over that, so come get me. I don’t give a shit, right. Bottom line is, we enforced the law.”

“When I was a cop in New York and I arrested a father for domestic violence, or someone for [driving under the influence], I separated that family,” he continued. “When you violate the law with a child, you’re going to be separated.”

“But you’re right, 250,000 children have crossed the border since Joe Biden’s been president,” Homan added. “They chose to separate themselves.”

Homan served as acting director of ICE from January 2017 through June 2018. He oversaw the early stages of the Trump administration’s controversial family separation policy, in which migrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without permission were criminally charged or referred for prosecution. 

Accompanying children were taken from the adults they arrived with and, in the formal policy that was eventually released, were handed over to the Department of Health and Human Services.

“I don’t give a shit what anybody says,” Homan added while speaking about Biden administration border policies. “This border has put a lot of lives in danger.”

A Family Reunification Task Force, established under President Biden, has identified nearly 4,000 children that were separated from their parents under the Trump administration. Almost 3,000 have been reunified with their family as of February, of which more than 600 were facilitated by the task force.