It is “unconscionable” that Democratic leaders reportedly didn’t want to listen to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s briefing on the southern border on Wednesday amid a showdown over border wall funding.
That’s according to former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting Director Thomas Homan, who shared his thoughts during an interview Wednesday night on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) attended a meeting on Wednesday at the White House with President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers during the 12th day of the partial government shutdown to negotiate.
But neither side is budging — the president is demanding border wall funding, while Pelosi and Schumer are refusing to offer a cent of it.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) currently is investigating a skirmish at the U.S.-Mexico border that occurred on Monday as migrants rushed the border and threw rocks at the agents.
The agents deployed tear gas as the 150 migrants tried to enter the U.S. illegally.
Homan noted that these immigration enforcement agents currently aren’t being paid as a result of the partial government shutdown over border security and wall funding.
“They’re not being compensated at all right now. I mean, these men and women are working without being paid and they’re putting their lives on the line for their country,” Homan told Fox News guest host Jason Chaffetz. “They’re doing the best job they can. They do it all to protect this border.”
Homan also suggested that this clash and the caravan of thousands of migrants trekking toward the U.S. late in 2018 weren’t “all by accident.”
“This isn’t all by accident. These demonstrations — there’s a lot of pushing going on the southern border. These caravans are trying to make the news. They want to put the border patrol in a bad light. They want to be on the front page of every newspaper in the world,” Homan argued.
“This has been planned by certain groups.”
Thus, “it is unconscionable that our Democratic leadership did not let the Senate-confirmed Homeland Security secretary give them a briefing on the border,” Homan said.
Fox News reported Wednesday that Pelosi and Schumer tried to shut down Nielsen just a few seconds after Trump turned the meeting over to her for a briefing on the border crisis reality.
“I mean, [Nielsen] was going to share with them … the numbers of how many criminals have been arrested coming across the border, how many terrorists have been arrested coming across the border, how many criminals have been arrested by ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] that are here illegally that obviously came in the United States illegally,” Homan said.
“[Nielsen] was going to give them a real-life situation on the border — how many children are sick, how many people are coming and need medical attention, how many people come with disease,” Homan continued.
But “they didn’t want to hear it because it didn’t fall in line with their talking points of, ‘There’s no problem on the border … There’s no crime, there’s no disease at the border.'”
Homan implored Trump to act following the Democratic leaders’ resistance to Nielsen’s briefing.
“Since they shut down the secretary today, if the president of the United States is watching, I implore you to have a presidential address to the entire nation in prime time and share this data with the American people,” Homan said.
“They voted for you to secure this border,” he continued. “They need to hear this data on the criminals and the gangs and the drugs coming across this border.”
“Go around Nancy and Mr. Schumer. Talk to the American people. You will win your support. You are doing the right thing,” Homan added.
But Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who also appeared on “The Ingraham Angle,” warned that “the fundamental problem” is that Democrats “are much more focused on stopping the president than they are on doing what’s best for the country.”
“The agents want the wall. The American people want the wall … Let’s do what’s best for the country here,” Jordan pleaded. “This is important. We need the border security wall. The president’s been clear on that.”
Even though Trump is “willing to compromise” on the amount of border wall funding he is demanding, the Democrats have said they will give “nothing for the wall,” Jordan lamented.
“That’s the problem. If you want to deal with the drug problem, the gang problem … and the human trafficking problem, you need a border security wall. That’s all we’re saying,” Jordan said.
“And we’re only asking for $5 billion and we were willing to come down some on that.”
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