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Trump named Tom Homan his \u201cborder Czar,\u201d but after serving as a local cop with the West Carthage, NY police, he joined the Immigration and Naturalization Serve and was appointed by President Obama to the position of \u201cImmigration and Customs Enforcement\u2019s executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations\u201d in 2013. Obama awarded Homan the Presidential Rank Award in 2015, and WaPo praised his service.<\/a><\/p>\n Thomas Homan deports people. And he\u2019s really good at it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n As it turned out, there was a reason for this.<\/a><\/p>\n But the bottom line is, that plane was full of \u2014 of people designated as terrorists, number one. Number two, every \u2014 every Venezuelan migrant on that flight was a TDA member based on numerous criminal investigation, on intelligence reports, and a lot of work by ICE officers. Matter of fact, two days after that flight took off, I even had a discussion with the acting director of ICE and we \u2014 he reiterated that every person, every Venezuelan on that plane was a known member of the TDA.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In other words, they\u2019re \u201cguilty\u201d because he says they\u2019re really certain they\u2019re guilty, and if there was any doubt, the director of ICE \u201creiterated\u201d that they were guilty. What more could anyone want?*<\/p>\n KARL: Do they have any due process at all?<\/p>\n HOMAN: Due process \u2014 what was Laken Riley\u2019s due process?<\/p>\n (That\u2019s a \u201cno\u201d) pic.twitter.com\/cqN5KQn0FV<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 23, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The \u201cLaken Riley\u201d<\/a> rationale has become something of a mantra to defenders of extraordinary rendition, who, like Homan, don\u2019t believe they are doing anything wrong by depriving the deported of due process, both because they believe the law allows it and they deserve it. After all, if ICE says they\u2019re guilty, how could they possibly be wrong?<\/p>\n Many people would immediately recognize Homan\u2019s invocation of the \u201cLakin Riley\u201d mantra to be simplistic and stunningly false. No, murder victims are not given due process by their murderers. That\u2019s because they\u2019re murderers, and murderers are criminals who, upon conviction for their crime, are punished. By no stretch of logic or policy does that mean the government should be no different than a murderer, a criminal, and employ the criminal\u2019s behavior as the measure of the government\u2019s behavior.<\/p>\n Most people do not need this explained to them. But then, Tom Homan isn\u2019t most people.<\/a><\/p>\n When pushed on whether he would release the information about the deportations, Homan said the decision would need to be \u201clitigated in the courts.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s going to be more litigation on this case, I\u2019m sure. But what we did \u2014 what was done by the Trump administration was exactly in accordance with federal law, again, enacted by Congress and signed by a president,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Homan is talking about the Alien Enemies Act, there is little doubt that he believes what he\u2019s saying, that he\u2019s acting in full compliance with the law.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not making this up. We\u2019re enforcing laws around the books.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Like Karoline Leavitt<\/a>, Homan is no lawyer and is merely regurgitating what he\u2019s told, what he believes to be true. That there is \u201cone cool trick<\/a>\u201d that nobody thought of before but legalizes what he\u2019s been told to do, remove these \u201cillegals\u201d from the United States of America. And he\u2019s really good at it. And those inclined to believe whatever their president, also not a lawyer I might add, tells them no matter how legally nonsensical it might be or logically bankrupt.<\/p>\n For the great unwashed, there really isn\u2019t much of a concern here, as they are absolutely clear that these aliens are \u201cillegal,\u201d that they have \u201cinvaded\u201d the US by coming over the border, en masse, through the holes in Trump\u2019s fence illegally, and that they deserve neither due process nor, frankly, any concern for being shipped elsewhere. They \u201casked for it,\u201d and they\u2019re only getting what they deserve. Wipe away those tears, kids, unless you\u2019re crying for Laken Riley, who was given no\u00a0 due process by her murderer.<\/p>\n But are they all really gangbangers, Tren de Aragua or MS-13? Homan is confident, but is that all we need to be assured they didn\u2019t toss in a barber or a soccer player, neither of whom were convicted of any offense and weren\u2019t here illegally? They may well all have deserved to be removed. Or maybe not.<\/p>\n But it no more falls to Tom \u201cTrust Us\u201d Homan than it would to any arresting officer in any prosecution. This is true despite the victims of crimes never receiving due process, because they are the victims of criminals and the government is not a criminal. At least it didn\u2019t used to be.<\/p>\n *As the late Ronald Reagan astutely said, \u201cTrust, but verify.\u201d He had a point.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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