'De-escalating' ICE with its former hardliner-in-chief
📰 THE STORY: The New York Times reports on the purported efforts to 'de-escalate' tensions around Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Minnesota, highlighting consideration of Tom Homan, former acting director of ICE, for a role in this process. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: Tom Homan, far from a de-escalator, was a vocal proponent and architect of the
Trump administration's 'zero tolerance' policy at the border, which led to the separation of thousands of children from their parents, a tactic widely condemned as a human rights violation. This policy echoed earlier, often less publicized, coercive and punitive immigration enforcement measures, like 'Operation Wetback' in 1954, which forcibly deported over one million people, many of whom were US
citizens, under similar fear-mongering pretexts. The use of immigration as a political tool for control and scapegoating has deep roots in US history, dating back to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Double Standard: While the NYT frames Homan's potential involvement as a pragmatic approach to 'tensions,' imagine if a European leader appointed the architect of a widely condemned policy—say, the
person responsible for Libya's post-Gaddafi slave markets—to 'de-escalate' migrant issues. The international media outcry would be deafening. Yet, in the US context, the same figure, responsible for documented child separation and aggressive raids, is presented as a potential solution, sanitizing his past and enabling future abuses. Follow the Money: The revolving door between hardline immigration