It's not hard to understand why people attempting to cross the border after traveling through Mexico in a caravan want to be in the United States, acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Thomas Homan said Tuesday, but the way they're doing it is an "attack on the sovereignty of this nation."
"Look, do I think some of these people have a credible case?" Homan, who announced his retirement on Monday, told Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
"Do some of these folks are they escaping fear and persecution? Yes, some are. I know many aren't. Many are taking advantage of a system with loopholes in it."
Homan said that many of the people who arrive and seek sanctuary are coached as what to say, and if they show up in court, the judge only finds a small number of them have legitimate cases.
"I can't blame anybody for wanting to be a part of the greatest country on Earth," said Homan. "There is right way to do it, a wrong way to do it. You can't want to be part of the greatest country of Earth and not respect the laws. You can't have it both ways under this president. Which is the right thing."
Homan added that there are also people trying to come into the United States from other dangerous locations, such as Syria, where they are "really escaping fear and persecution," but when others come in the wrong way, they clog the system and deny people help who really need it.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump hasn't changed the nation's immigration laws much, but is simply saying officials will enforce the laws on the books, "which we haven't been allowed to do in a long, long time," said Homan.
"I was hired under Ronald Reagan," said Homan. "I worked for six different presidents. None of them has done more than Donald Trump has for border security and law enforcement. This president has done more for us than any president."
ICE officers are often criticized, he added, but "they're enforcing the law. If you don't like what we do, tell Congress to change the law."
"Twenty thousand men and women of ICE I love dearly, they come to work every day, strap a gun to their hip, risk safety of their homes to defend the nation," said Homan. "Other politicians call them Nazis, racists. They're enforcing laws. They're American heroes. They need to be identified as such."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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