Border Czar Tom Homan shut CBS’s Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan down with facts on Sunday when she attempted to push the lie that Republicans in Congress are responsible for the government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security and, most notably, the Transportation Security Administration.
The Democrats shut the government down and have held funding for the entire Department of Homeland Security hostage in order to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for more than 40 days.
However, Brennan argued to Homan that “Republicans control both chambers,” it’s the fault of Trump and the Republican Party that Homeland Security remains defunded.
Homan fired back, “The Democrats shut down DHS,” adding, “Remember why we’re here. We’re here because the last four years of an open border, millions of people were in this country illegally, many public safety threats, national security threats, and we’re out seeking them and arresting them, and they simply don’t like ICE enforcing the law.”
Still, Brennan continued attempting to blame Trump and Republicans, pressing Homan on why Senate Republicans and House Republicans could not agree to reopen the government with the recent Senate-backed funding bill that did not include funding for ICE.
Homan maintained that he only supports “Congress opening up the entire government, the entire DHS, and not holding people in DHS hostage because they don’t like immigration enforcement.”
Brennan continued to press the issue while conveniently refusing to mention that the government could reopen immediately if Democrats would simply allow ICE to remain funded.
WATCH:
Brennan: Just to be clear, the President is not forcing lawmakers to come back to Washington now. He’s going to wait until mid April to do this?
Homan: And the American people hold Congress responsible. They’re on vacation right now while 10s of 1000s of DHS employees aren’t being paid, and that’s what happened at the airport.
Brennan: But Republicans control both chambers. This is the President’s party.
The Democrats shut down DHS. They voted to shut down DHS because they simply won’t fund DHS because they want to change policies so ICE is less effective in the interior. Remember why we’re here. We’re here because the last four years of an open border, millions of people were in this country illegally, many public safety threats, national security threats, and we’re out seeking them and arresting them, and they simply don’t like ICE enforcing the law. They proved that the last four years. They didn’t let ICE enforce the law.
Homan further confirmed that ICE agents will remain at airports for as long as necessary to secure airports as the FIFA World Cup approaches, after Trump deployed ICE agents to assist with security and long wait times resulting from the Democrat-led shutdown.
As long as vacancies remain from TSA agents who left the job during the shutdown, “ICE will remain in airports to take those jobs to secure the airport,” he said.
WATCH:
Brennan: There’s like 500 TSA officers who have quit. Do you expect to be able to rehire them? And we have some big events like the World Cup coming up in June. Are we going to have problems at airports for the foreseeable future.
Homan: Look, we’re going to continue an ice presence there until the airports feel like they’re in 100%, you know, in a posture where they can do normal operations. If less TSA agents come back, that means we’ll keep more ICE agents there. The President’s been clear.
He wants to secure those airports, especially, as I said earlier, in an increased threat posture. We need to secure those airports. ICE is there to help our brothers and sisters in TSA. We’ll be there as long as they need us until they get back to normal operation to feel like those airports are secure.
Jordan Conradson, formerly TGP’s Arizona correspondent, is currently on assignment in Washington DC. Jordan has played a critical role in exposing fraud and corruption in Arizona’s elections and elected officials. His reporting on election crimes in Maricopa County led to the resignation of one election official, and he was later banned from the Maricopa County press room for his courage in pursuit of the truth. TGP and Jordan finally gained access after suing Maricopa County, America’s fourth largest county, and winning at the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Conradson looks forward to bringing his aggressive style of journalism to the Swamp.
You can email Jordan Conradson here, and read more of Jordan Conradson’s articles here.
