President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, suggested in a Monday Fox News appearance that the nation’s justice system would not keep the Trump administration from fulfilling its mission to deport any immigrants it deems dangerous.
“We’re not stopping. I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the left thinks. We’re coming,” Homan told “Fox & Friends” host Lawrence B. Jones on Monday.
“Lawrence, they’re not going to stop us,” he said. “I wake up every morning loving my job because I work for the greatest president in the history of my life.”
His comments come amid growing aggression in the Trump administration toward the Constitution’s foundational separation of power structures across the federal government.
In recent days, Trump officials have found themselves in hot water with multiple federal judges, as noted by Jones.
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg ordered a halt to the effort to deport hundreds of immigrants allegedly affiliated with Venezuelan gangs after Trump invoked a controversial 18th century wartime law over the weekend. But two planes full of the immigrants departed anyway.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the judge’s order “had no lawful basis” and was issued “after terrorist [Tren de Aragua] aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory.”
Speaking to reporters later on Monday, Homan again defended Trump.
“The plane was already over international waters with a plane full of terrorists and significant public safety threats,” he said, adding, “The president did exactly the right thing.”
Honan said “238 Tren de Aragua members along with 21 MS13 gang members” were on the flights, according to a statement shared by the White House.
Trump’s administration also faced a rebuke from U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin, who wrote there are grounds to believe officials “willfully” defied his order to give advance notice before deporting a Brown University medical professor, Dr. Rasha Alawieh.
Several other controversial detentions and attempted deportations have cropped up in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, a Columbia Palestinian activist, Mahmoud Khalil, was arrested and whisked 1,000 miles away from the university-owned apartment he shared with his wife despite the fact he held a valid green card. The Trump administration’s attempt to deport him for his leadership role in last year’s pro-Palestine student demonstrations has been stalled in court.
Another green card holder, Fabian Schmidt, is reportedly being detained after a “violent” interrogation that included being stripped naked and forced into a cold shower, New Hampshire Public Radio reported. Schmidt’s family told the outlet they are not sure why he is being detained.
Go Ad-Free — And Protect The Free Press
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
The puzzling treatment of a pair of German tourists — chained and detained for weeks — has grabbed the attention of European travelers, according to The New York Times, particularly amid the detention of a U.K. tourist in Washington state.