Former Acting ICE Director Tom Homan slammed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and the Biden administration during an interview this week over the border crisis that has erupted under the new administration.
Homan said that the current border crisis was the worst that he’s ever seen and that it was “totally preventable.” Homan said that the Biden administration was explicitly warned that if they ended the Trump administration’s policies, it would trigger everything that has happened.
The Biden administration “knew what they were doing, again this isn’t incompetence, this isn’t bad management, this is open borders,” Homan said. “They designed an open borders agenda and that men and women of Border Patrol feel abandoned because they’re no longer enforcing the law, they’re just facilitating illegally entry at the instruction of the administration.”
Later, when asked about recent remarks from Ocasio-Cortez, who said this week that anyone calling the border crisis a “surge” was essentially racist, Homan said.
AOC “needs to come down and talk to the men and women who put the uniform on every day and stand in that line,” Homan said. “Look the men and women of the Border Patrol say it’s a surge. The men and women of the Border Patrol [say] it’s a crisis. The men and women of the Border Patrol know what Brian Babin said, that these cartels are using these children or family units to throw them across the border and tie up their assets, 40% of Border Patrol is assigned to the vicinity, no longer in line. So, these cartels are moving drugs and bad people through unguarded areas, this is a national security crisis and if she can’t understand that or accept that, then she shouldn’t be in Congress at all.”
WATCH:
TRANSCRIPT:
BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX NEWS HOST: Shocking images from inside a cramped border, this came through yesterday, if you haven’t seen it, don’t blame yourself, it just came out. This is the facility in Donna, Texas, showing migrants stacked wall-to-wall. Many are unaccompanied children just sitting there, laying there, waiting to be processed. Texas Congressman Brian Babin and retired Acting ICE Director Tom Homan both toured the southern border together. They join us now to talk about what they saw because they saw a lot more than just these images. Thanks to you both. Congressman you’re no stranger to this area, what was different about this visit?
REP. BRIAN BABIN (R-TX): Well it’s out of control, you know, I mean in spite of what the Biden administration is telling us, ‘this is not a crisis even, there’s just a challenge, etc…’ We know it’s a humanitarian crisis, not only for the migrants that were coming in, my heart just went out to some of these children in a facility there in Donna that should be holding 250 and they’ve got 5,700 people stacked in there like sardines and they just don’t just seem to realize what’s going on there. The Border Patrol as Tom will tell you, are, I think the morale is down, but they’re doing a tremendous job, but they’re battin’ with a short stick and then opening up the borders of the United States of America and absolutely creating this problem and putting Americans in danger as well as these migrants and the stunning cost of what is happening there, it’s just unbelievable, Brian.
KILMEADE: I know we’re getting hotels, we’re converting military bases, we’re taking over the convention centers not even telling the governors. Tom it takes a lot to rattle you from what you saw. Where does this rank in outrageous scenes at the border in your career?
TOM HOMAN, FORMER ACTING ICE DIRECTOR: It’s the worst because this was totally preventable. Now the Biden administration, the incoming administration was warned, they said if you if you end these programs, we’re going to see a surge that you’ve never seen before. They were briefed by leadership at ICE, at CBP, I’ve talked to people that briefed them. And so they knew this would happened. Look, Brian, I wrote an op-ed in July of last year saying this would happen if they ended these policies. They knew what they were doing, again this isn’t incompetence, this isn’t you know bad management, this is open borders. They designed an open borders agenda and that men and women of Border Patrol feel abandoned because they’re no longer enforcing the law, they’re just facilitating illegally entry at the instruction of the administration.
KILMEADE: And you were telling me before that they feel abandoned, but you used the word ‘surge.’ You offended a congresswoman from Queens, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Here’s what I’m talking about.
[START VIDEO]
REP. ALEXNADRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): First of all, just gut check, stop. Anyone who is using the term ‘surge’ around you consciously, is trying to invoke a militaristic frame. … This is not a surge, these are children and they are not insurgents, and we are not being invaded.
[END VIDEO]
KILMEADE: Congressmen, how dare you insult her by using the word ‘surge.’
BABIN: Where is she now, Brian? Why isn’t she down here? I can tell you leading this delegation of Texas congressman and former professionals in this very business, we actually asked after Vice President Kamala Harris was given charge of the border situation by President Biden, we actually invited her. We invited her to come and visit with us at some of these spots on our itinerary, we heard nothing whatsoever, and absolutely while this administration is telling us to continue to wear masks and only visit with just very few people up until July, they are stacking people who are COVID-positive, children on top of one another, and releasing them into the public to fan out across Texas and across this United States in the middle of a pandemic. They have, it’s just hard to comprehend how they can justify this except that I think this is their plan. They want open borders, they want as many of these people to come in and get on government assistance and become voting citizens or at least voting you know people that would come in and continue the Democrat majority. And … I think people just need to wake up and if it wasn’t for people like you Brian and Fox News, they would not be getting the truth and that’s what we need is the truth here.
KILMEADE: Right. Tom you insulted her when you use the warlike term ‘surge.’
HOMAN: Well she needs to come down and talk to the men and women who put the uniform on every day and stand in that line.
KILMEADE: She came down when Trump was president.
HOMAN: Oh absolutely, but you haven’t seen her since. Look the men and women of the Border Patrol say it’s a surge. The men and women of the Border Patrol [say] it’s a crisis. The men and women of the Border Patrol know what Brian Babin said, that these cartels are using these children or family units to throw them across the border and tie up their assets, 40% of Border Patrol is assigned to the vicinity, no longer in line. So, these cartels are moving drugs and bad people through unguarded areas, this is a national security crisis and if she can’t understand that or accept that, then she shouldn’t be in Congress at all.
KILMEADE: Yeah, what’s unbelievable is the vice president was given this portfolio, clearly by the president, she takes the weekend off and says, I’m not going to the border. I’m going to the origin of where the problem is. I don’t know who’s more powerful in that administration. It’s hard to know, I don’t even know what she’s doing. But it’s hard to believe that that would be you’d want the job and then not do the job. Congressman, Tom Homan, thanks so much.