Donald Trump’s border czar threatened Minnesota with the continued presence of federal troops—despite the recent killings of state residents.
Tom Homan issued the threat as part of a presentation on Thursday morning touting purported adjustments to the administration’s mass deportation program.
Homan is replacing beleaguered Border Patrol leader Gregory Bovino as the face of the Trump administration’s actions in Minnesota, apparently based on a “Fox and Friends” segment that Trump watched earlier in the week.
In his press conference, Homan claimed the administration would consider a possible drawdown of forces from Minnesota—but then issued a threat.
“The withdrawal of law enforcement resources here is dependent upon cooperation,” Homan said.
Effectively, Homan’s statement echoes Trump’s previous ransom-style demands that Minnesota officials must fall in line with the administration’s racist, hardline approach to immigration in exchange for relief.
Homan also claimed that he “begged for the last two months” that harsh rhetoric with regards to immigration enforcement stop, and that bloodshed would result if that did not cease. But Homan’s boss, Donald Trump, has spent the last few weeks referring to Somali immigrants as “garbage,” which has understandably inflamed tensions across the nation.
Homan has also been one of the loudest voices over the last year attacking Democrats and progressives over immigration issues.
Last February, Homan said he would push for a Department of Justice investigation of New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the sin of informing immigrant communities of their rights under the Constitution. And it was Homan in June who threatened that he would arrest California Gov. Gavin Newsom for his opposition to immigration action in his home state.
Homan’s latest press conference was further confirmation that the Trump administration has lost control of the narrative on immigration, as the public lashes out at public executions and harsh treatment of minority communities. While many in the mainstream media unquestioningly repeated the administration’s political spin that Trump was making a pivot in its approach, the press conference showed that was once again a lie.
Whether the face of Trump’s cruel policies is Homan or Bovino, the rhetoric continuing to flow from the administration makes it clear that the same mindset that took the lives of Renee Good and Alex Pretti remains firmly in place.
Published with permission of Daily Kos
