Trump Pays Eye-Watering Amount to Build Biggest Immigration Camp Ever

Who, by Homan’s lights, is responsible for the rhetoric (and, in turn, the violence)? “I specifically mean members of Congress,” he said. “If members of Congress can compare ICE to the Nazis, that gives some of those people on the far left, the out of control people—it emboldens them to take action.”

Homan’s tone policing is consistent with other spurious attempts by the Trump administration to blame Democratic lawmakers for the reported (and exaggerated) increases in assaults against ICE agents.

Earlier this month, for instance, the White House issued a statement attributing a “surge” in assaults against ICE agents to “dangerous, inflammatory rhetoric from Democrat politicians.” The examples it provided, however, were alllegitimate criticisms of ICE’s enforcement under Trump (likening the agents to “secret police” or “Gestapo,” for example, due to instances of masked, plainclothes officers plucking people off the street, at times for their political opinions) or of ICE in general (such as calls to abolish the agency).