WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 5: Thomas Homan, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), pauses while speaking during a Department of Homeland Security press conference to announce end-of-year numbers regarding immigration enforcement, border security and national security, December 5, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

‘Making it very difficult to arrest’: Trump’s Border Czar supposedly hates that migrants know their rights

Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan is complaining that mass deportation is harder than he thought it would be.

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In an interview on CNN, Homan whined that undocumented migrants living in sanctuary cities are too “educated” about their rights, and that makes them “very difficult” to arrest. Homans statements are another example of the Republican habit of saying the quiet part out loud, implying that the Trump administration blatantly and criminally intends to violate the rights of migrants, and would rather keep those migrants uninformed of their rights in order to facilitate unlawful deportations.

Homan brought up Chicago, a well known sanctuary city, as a case study. “Chicago—very well-educated,” Homan said. They‘ve been educated on how to how to defy ICE, how to hide from ICE. I‘ve seen many pamphlets from many NGOs: ’Here‘s how you escape ICE from arresting you. Here‘s what you need to do.’ “

“They call it ‘Know Your Rights.’ I call it ‘how to escape arrest,’” Homan said, failing to understand that these two ideas are one and the same. America guarantees human rights protections to citizens and non-citizens alike, protecting from unlawful arrest. These rights are enshrined in the Constitution under the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unlawful search and seizure and requires law enforcement to produce a warrant before making an arrest. The Fourth Amendment has been a part of the Constitution since 1791, and despite Homan’s wishes to the contrary, it isn’t going anywhere.

According to the ACLU, ICE makes Fourth Amendment violations a matter of procedure. The ways ICE attempts to circumvent migrant rights in order to make an arrest are myriad, and the ACLU cites that ICE agents will do everything from pretending to be probation officers, local police, or even civilians in order to gain warrantless entry to a house or place of business.

Immigration officers recently made headlines for making such an arrest. In Newark, New Jersey, federal agents raided a seafood restaurant and detained three employees on suspicion that they were undocumented. One of the employees was a military veteran, and despite showing the arresting officers his military issued I.D., he was still subject to detention. The raid, which was publicly condemned by the mayor of Newark, was performed without a warrant.

Homan raged against the idea that migrants would attempt to assert their rights in order to avoid deportation. “If we gotta play that cat and mouse game, that’s what we’re going to do ‘til every one of them’s gone,” he said.

While migrants are indeed subject to Fourth Amendment protections, many are understandably terrified by the Trump administration’s deportation plan. The California Farm Bureau reported that migrant agricultural workers in Central Valley have stopped showing up for work due to deportation fears. The nation’s Indigenous population has become fearful as well, as Trump has toyed with the idea of rescinding citizenship rights to Native Americans, a notion as hypocritical as it is cruel. Nevertheless, members of the Navajo/Diné Nation have reportedly been questioned and detained by immigration officers.

While the Trump administration’s executive order abolishing birthright citizenship has been met with lawsuits and restraining orders by federal judges, state governments and private citizens, many of Trump’s other mass deportation polices have gone into effect. Trump’s state of emergency declaration allowed him to send 1,500 troops to the nation’s southern border to assist in the deportation effort, and the president has also halted refugees and asylum seekers from entering the U.S. Many Democratic states have reaffirmed their commitment to helping the undocumented. Not everyone is willing to forget migrants’ rights, no matter how much Homan snivels.


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Sarah Fimm
Sarah Fimm (they/them) is actually nine choirs of biblically accurate angels crammed into one pair of $10 overalls. They have been writing articles for nerds on the internet for less than a year now. They really like anime. Like... REALLY like it. Like you know those annoying little kids that will only eat hotdogs and chicken fingers? They're like that... but with anime. It's starting to get sad.