Former Acting ICE Director Sets AOC Straight: Americans Who Break Law Separated from Children Too
Former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Thomas Homan corrected Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York on Friday when she claimed migrants crossing the southern border who make asylum claims are not breaking the law.
Referring to a memo Homan signed, Ocasio-Cortez accused him during a House Oversight Committee hearing of initiating the short-lived “family separation policy” in spring 2018.
Homan countered that he recommended implementing the “zero-tolerance” policy.
“Which includes family separation,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“The same as it is with every U.S. citizen,” Homan fired back. “Parent [who] gets arrested when they’re with a child.”
Pausing briefly, Ocasio-Cortez then asserted: “Zero tolerance was interpreted as the policy that separated children from their parents.”
Homan responded that Americans who break the law get separated from their children too.
“If I get arrested for [driving under the influence] and I have a young child in the car, I’m going to be separated,” Homan said. “When I was a police officer in New York, and I arrested a father for domestic violence, I separated that father from his family.”
The congresswoman disputed that migrants crossing the border are guilty of unlawful conduct.
“Mr. Homan, with all due respect, legal asylees are not charged with any crime,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Homan then cited the specific code.
“When you’re in this country illegally, it’s violation 8, United States Code 1325,” he stated.
“Seeking asylum is legal,” she reasserted.
“If you want to seek asylum, you go through the port of entry,” Homan said.
“Do it the legal way. The attorney general of the United States has made that clear.”
His response appeared to leave Ocasio-Cortez without much to say, and she submitted the memo into the record before turning her attention to another witness.
The New York Democrat later tweeted, “When Homan says ‘they can come in a port of entry,’ what he doesn’t say is that the admin has practically closed ports to asylees.”
“Out of desperation, families do what Óscar & Valeria (the father & daughter who drowned) did: face dangerous terrain,” she added.
“These are policies of cruelty.”
Fox News contributor and Townhall editor Katie Pavlich thanked Homan for reminding Ocasio-Cortez that “breaking the law has consequences.”
Thank you Mr. Homan for making this obvious point: When Americans are arrested or put in prison for crimes, they too are separated from their children. Breaking the law has consequences. Why the double standard for illegal aliens? https://t.co/Y4U4qJ3iWg
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) July 12, 2019
“Thank you Mr. Homan for making this obvious point: When Americans are arrested or put in prison for crimes, they too are separated from their children,” she wrote.
“Breaking the law has consequences. Why the double standard for illegal aliens?”
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