TEACH A LESSON

Trump’s Border Czar Threatens to Raid Schools and Arrest Students

“How many MS-13 members are at the ages 14 to 17? Many of them,” Tom Homan said.

President Donald Trump’s border czar has suggested that he will order law enforcement raids on schools, in a move that is likely to sound off alarm bells among teachers across the nation.

Tom Homan, who was also appointed as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Trump’s last administration, said schools were not out of bounds for officers as he claimed many criminal gang members were teenagers.

“How many MS-13 members are at the ages 14 to 17? Many of them,” he told ABC News host Martha Raddatz on This Week, referring to the criminal gang group that was born in Los Angeles.

Homan insisted that he would look at individuals on a “case-by-case” basis but he refused to rule out law enforcement raids on schools to target young men.

“Name another agency, another law enforcement agency [that] has those types of requirements, that they can’t walk into a school or doctor’s office or a medical campus. No other agencies have these standards.”

“These are well-trained officers, we’re allowed discretion, and when it comes to a sense of location, there’s still going to be supervised review,” he continued. So it’s not like it’s an open issue, but ICE officers should have the discretion to decide if a national security threat or a public safety threat in one of these facilities, then it should be an option then to make the arrest.”

Raddatz, who appeared stunned by Homan’s strong threats, sought to clarify what the Trump border czar had meant by his statements.

“Someday, you can go into those schools, and grab people who are just in the country illegally?”

“On the case-by-case basis depending who they are, what the circumstances are,” Homan replied.

The Trump administration’s border chief also revealed that military flights would be taking illegal immigrants southward on a daily basis – and that numbers would steadily increase over time.

“Right now, it’s concentrating on public safety threats, national security threats. That’s a smaller population. So we’re going to do this on a priority basis as President Trump promised. But as that aperture opens, there’ll be more arrests nationwide,” he said.

In a stark warning to undocumented immigrants, Homan said the Trump administration was certain to deport millions of people despite legal challenges.

“[If] you’re in the country illegally, you’re on the table because it’s not okay to violate laws in this country,” he said. “That’s why I’m hoping those who are in the country illegally who have not been ordered removed by the federal judge should leave.”

Homan’s record on immigration during Trump’s last time in office was particularly striking, defending the separation of thousands of children from their parents as necessary for “saving lives.”

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

Maurício AlencarFreelance Reporter

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.