Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thomas Homan on Thursday defended President Donald Trump's "animals" comment as not going far enough.
"I told the president yesterday, I know he's taken a lot of hits for the comment, but if you actually think about it, what I said yesterday is animals kill to survive, MS-13 kills for sport. To terrorize," Homan said on Fox News' "Fox & Friends."
"For those folks who want to question the president on the use of the word animal, talk to parents of these children that were murdered," he continued. "And not just murdered, hacked to death. Imagine a parent living the rest of their lives knowing their child suffered and was terrorized and killed slowly in such a manner?"
At a roundtable on immigration on May 16, a California sheriff complained that ICE cannot use local law enforcement databases to find gang members.
"There could be an MS-13 gang member I know about — if they don't reach a certain threshold, I cannot tell ICE about it," Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said, according to Politifact.
"We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in — and we're stopping a lot of them — but we're taking people out of the country," Trump replied. "You wouldn't believe how bad these people are. These aren't people. These are animals."
"The rhetoric right now against this president and those that protect MS-13 — I wish they felt as strong about the attacks that these same people make on ICE officers and border patrol agents," Homan said.
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