The federal government has taken a decidedly stronger approach to immigration enforcement since President Donald Trump took office in January, but now the Trump Administration is making its position crystal clear. In a hearing before the House Appropriations Committee this week, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said all illegal immigrants should fear deportation. "If you're in this country illegally and you committed a crime by entering this country, you should be uncomfortable, you should look over your shoulder, and you need to be worried," said Thomas M. Homan, acting director of ICE.
Homan explained to lawmakers that his office is simply enforcing the laws that are already on the books, which is common sense. "We're a sovereign country, we need to decide who comes in and out of this country," said Homan. "If we don't hold people accountable for entering this country illegally, then what are we doing?"
Homan's remarks come as the Trump Administration has requested an increase in funding for border security and immigration enforcement. To that end, he told lawmakers ICE needs more detention space to house the increased number of illegals being rounded up.
Some Democrats on the committee accused Homan of breaking up families with ICE raids and deportations, but he flatly rejected that idea. "If someone enters this country illegally, and knows he's in the country illegally, and is found to be in the country illegally, and ordered removed from the country, and still chooses to have a child in this country who is a U.S. citizen by virtue of its birth, he put himself in that position...we're not the one separating him from his family."