ICE Chief Blasts California Dems For Attacking Immigration Agents

DAILY CALLER: Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Thomas Homan lit into leading California Democrats Monday, saying they were deliberately distorting the nature and purpose of recent immigration operations in the state.

Homan singled out House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who in February said a targeted ICE operation in northern California was a “bigoted” attempt to “terrorize innocent immigrant families.”

Pelosi’s comments were “beyond the pale,” the ICE chief said.

“Our ICE officers are protecting immigrant communities” by arresting criminal aliens who live among law-abiding immigrants, Homan told reporters. ICE officers “don’t arrest innocent people” during targeted operations, Homan said and added they arrest only those with previous criminal convictions or pending orders of removal.

Homan, whose nomination to become the permanent ICE director is stalled in the Senate, also heaped scorn on two of Pelosi’s fellow California Democrats — Gov. Jerry Brown and Sen. Dianne Feinstein — for their own criticism of the agency’s work in the state. Feinstein, in particular, seemed to be attacking ICE in hypocritical fashion, he noted.

“She voted for the very laws we’re enforcing,” he said, referring Feinstein’s support of the Immigration Control and Financial Responsibility Act of 1996, which stiffened penalties for some immigration-related offenses.  MORE HERE