Media iteBy Sean JamesDec 13th, 2025White House Border Czar Tom Homan is “begging” Democratic politicians to stop criticizing ICE and Border Patrol agents, saying their job is already hard enough and that they don’t need American politicians putting targets on their backs for apprehending illegal immigrants.Homan made his plea during a press conference in San Diego on Saturday.He was discussing how border crossings have plummeted during President Donald Trump’s first year back in office — hitting a 50-year low at the southern border; Homan said that work is being undermined by Dems who are publicly ridiculing ICE and Border Patrol agents for doing their jobs.
But why's everybody always pickin' on me?
“I’m begging the politicians, the governors and mayors who constantly attack these men and women, please stop,” Homan said. “I don’t wanna bury anybody else. It’s not a joke, we’re out there enforcing laws.”
Then there are the facts that they are cutting recruitment and training standards;
PBS News HourBy Liz Landers & Maea Lenei BuhreDec 4, 2025ICE is in the midst of an aggressive recruitment campaign at a scale never seen before. The agency is reportedly signing on nearly 10,000 new agents in an effort to meet the demands of President Trump's immigration agenda. But some critics are concerned about the recruitment tactics and changes ICE has made to hiring and training standards. White House Correspondent Liz Landers reports.[...]Liz Landers:His deportation agenda was supercharged when the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in July. It included almost $75 billion extra for ICE, making it the highest funded law enforcement agency in the U.S. government, outstripping the FBI.And the agency announced a lofty recruitment goal of hiring 10,000 new agents by the end of the year, which would more than double the number of deportation officers from roughly 6,000 to 16,000.[...]Liz Landers:To make its recruitment quota, ICE has removed all age requirements and cut its training program length in half. The administration is also offering student loan forgiveness and lucrative overtime packages and signing bonuses of up to $50,000.It's pushing those perks in traditional places like job fairs, as well as almost anywhere potential recruits spend their time online.Joseph Cox, 404 Media: That's going to be on social media. It's going to be through streamers, so YouTube and other places where user-generated content is, but also large-scale broadcast and streaming platforms like Hulu, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, all of this sort of thing.[...]Liz Landers:And on social media, the Department of Homeland Security has launched a campaign it describes as aggressive. It's posted a meme referencing the video game Halo to its official X account with the slogan — quote — "Destroy the Flood."Joseph Cox:That's very dehumanizing language. The Flood is an insect parasite enemy in the video game. And you go through the replies and there are people who find it absolutely abhorrent and disgusting.
And those are the people they are looking for; the swamp people, the bigots, the racists, and xenophobes.
Well let me count the reasons:
- Warrantless and deceptive enforcement tactics,
- Arresting U.S. citizens without a warrant or cause,
- Poor and inhumane detention conditions,
- Court rulings on unlawful arrests,
- Lack of transparency and accountability,
- Lack of financial accountability,
- Lawsuits over enforcement,
- Human-rights complaints!
Hm... I would say that they have just-cause for all of the complaints!
Exhibit #1:
The "egregious" incident underscores concerns about ICE's enforcement practices, Supreme Court Justice Paul Suttell said.Boston.comBy Ross CristantielloNovember 21, 2025A high schooler working as an intern at the Rhode Island Superior Court was wrongfully detained by ICE agents Thursday in a chaotic scene outside the Licht Judicial Complex in Providence.In a statement, court officials said that a Superior Court judge insisted to ICE agents that the teen was not the person they were looking for. This intervention directly led to the teen’s release after ICE agents verified his information.Earlier on Thursday, sheriffs inside the complex noticed someone taking photos of the teen. They identified themselves as an ICE agent when approached, and they were told to stop taking photos and abide by courthouse rules, WPRI reported.
But then it escalated! When the judge came out to talk to the ICE agents and they threatened to arrest the judge. The governor chimed in...
Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee also weighed in, calling the incident an “outrageous and indefensible act” that could have seriously impacted the teen’s life. He supported the commitment to increasing access to virtual hearings.
Exhibit #2:
The ACLU and other groups interviewed more than 45 migrants held at the detention center and call it a “human and civil rights catastrophe.”Texas TribuneBy Cindy Ramirez, El Paso MattersDec. 10, 2025Immigrants detained at Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss say they have been coerced by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to cross the border into the Mexican desert — even if they have no connection to Mexico — or be sent to jail in third countries, human rights groups allege in a letter to the federal border protection agency.The facility has become a “human and civil rights catastrophe,” the American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations said in the letter sent Monday to ICE and Fort Bliss officials. The organizations are calling for the camp to be shut down, alleging detained immigrants are subject to beatings and sexual abuse by officers, as well as medical neglect, hunger and insufficient food, and denial of access to attorneys.A number of detainees suffered serious injuries due to these physical abuses, the report alleges, and in one reported case a detained teenager said he lost consciousness and required hospitalization after being slammed to the ground.“Officers have engaged in a widespread and unreasonable pattern and practice of excessive force, including the use of abusive sexual contact by officers when utilizing force,” the organizations said in a news release.
The contracts were federally bided but... according to reports Military.com;
- The company had no prior experience running correction or detention facilities.
- Its largest previous government contracts were significantly smaller (under about $16 million).
- Military.com
- There has been little transparency released by the Pentagon about the detailed scoring or rationale for selection
- At least one competitor (Gemini Tech Services) filed a protest challenging the award
Strange that with all of these violations there is not more oversight in how the contract was awarded.
Exhibit #3:
More Democratic members report being denied oversight visits to enforcement centersRollCallBy Chris JohnsonPosted June 18, 2025The Trump administration has claimed the partial government shutdown also means the end of a requirement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement give congressional access to detention facilities for oversight visits.The government made the argument in a legal clash with Democratic lawmakers, who had filed a lawsuit against ICE over access to real-time inspections of the facilities and new department guidance that requires at least seven days’ advance notice of a visit.The lawmakers based that lawsuit on Section 527, a provision included in the fiscal 2024 spending law and applied to funding in the continuing resolution for fiscal 2025, which states that no funds can be used to prevent members or their staffs from entering immigration detention facilities for oversight.But now the Trump administration says the provision expired on Oct. 1 along with the spending law, and ongoing spending is “not subject to the expired general provision known as Section 527,” according to a notice and declaration from ICE official Ralph Ferguson.
Exhibit # 4
The OBBBA pumps $75 billion into ICE with no guardrails, supercharging the Trump administration’s massive, indiscriminate deportation agenda that is operating without accountability and threatening local communities and economies.American ProgressIntroduction and summaryOn July 4, 2025, President Donald Trump signed into law a massive, partisan budget bill: the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). This bill—which congressional Republicans passed—makes devastating cuts to programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that help Americans meet their basic needs while giving massive tax breaks to the wealthy. The OBBBA—combined with other changes to the Affordable Care Act enacted by the president and congressional Republicans—will leave 15 million more people without health insurance and cause about 4 million people to have their food assistance terminated or cut substantially.However, the harmful impacts of the law don’t stop there. The new law provides an unprecedented increase in funding to implement the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda with zero accountability, after congressional Republicans rejected multiple requests to amend the bill to place checks on the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) use of these funds. The law provides $45 billion—available through fiscal year 2029—to dramatically expand Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention capacity to 100,000 beds. Additionally, the law appropriates nearly $30 billion for ICE personnel and enforcement operations. It pushes ICE’s overall annual budget of around $9.9 billion in fiscal year 2024 to $28 billion. The OBBBA will nearly triple ICE’s budget with this infusion of additional funding while taking away valuable support for vulnerable populations, including more than $1 trillion in cuts to medical care for children, the elderly, and disabled people. Even prior to the OBBBA, ICE and its contractors have operated without sufficient accountability and oversight. This funding increase will only enhance the Trump administration’s cruel immigration actions without making Americans safer.
ICE’s budget would exceed the FBI’s ~$11 billion annual budget by a large margin and it would also dwarf other domestic law enforcement agency budgets! They are aiming to recruit about 10,000 new agents/officers as part of a major expansion of immigration enforcement efforts! It is almost like they are building a private army!
As Ice expands and standards are lowered, advocates and former US officials warn that misconduct may increaseThe GuardianSam LevinTue 2 Sep 2025The last time the US dramatically expanded its force of immigration officers, major problems arose.Some border agents recruited in the 2000s turned out to be cartel members. One kidnapped and raped three women in his custody. Two others were convicted of off-duty murders.Now, as Donald Trump vows to build “the largest deportation operation” in history and kicks off a huge recruitment spree, human rights advocates and former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials are warning that misconduct and violence by officers could increase as a result.Bolstered by an unprecedented $170bn in funding for immigration and border enforcement activities, the DHS is seeking to hire 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers and 3,000 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents by the end of the year.[...]In the past, US officials have repeatedly dismissed misconduct, or even crimes, by immigration officers as anomalies. Watchdogs, however, argue corruption and abuse within Ice and CBP is rampant – and that the White House’s hiring tactics threaten to supercharge problems.“Abusive practices, misconduct and a sense of impunity have long existed within these agencies,” said Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee’s US/Mexico border program, which tracks officer misconduct. “There are systemic problems with accountability … and a culture of violence.”
And the White House Border Czar Tom Homan wonders why all the negative press!
But why's everybody always pickin' on me?
This week I am have work done to my house (Hardwood floors installed.) so I might not be posting regularly, I might re-post some old articles or I might use some canned posts that I have already written.
Interesting that the "border czar" wants politicians to stop "demonizing" ICE and Border Agents. Politicians do not have to say any thing. Video from the "man in the street" and factual reporting is enough to crucify those agents. SCOTUS hass sanctioned the wholesale violation of Constitutional Rights for 66 million Latinos in the United States. Skin color and language is enough cause to stop and detain. The last time there was wholesale attacks on a segment of society was in 1930's and 1940's Europe. It's unfortunate that Republicans sit idly while those laws which they profess to follow and promote sit silent like too many Germans in the 1930's and 1940's while government agents did their dirty work. The question I pose is whether you would want these agents "protecting and serving" in your local police department? It seems the qualifications to serve are being lessened and lessened as it becomes impossible to find enough intelligent thinkers to hire. Where is that common, now? Putin has emptied his jails to fight in the Ukraine, that's where!
ReplyDelete