Trump’s former ICE chief turns the tables on Harris’ ‘border hawk’ narrative

FIRST ON FOX: The head of immigration enforcement under former President Trump is seeking to sound the alarm about Vice President Kamala Harris’ “open borders” policies and the truth about the crisis at the southern border — just as Harris is claiming she is the right candidate to tackle the border.

Tom Homan, a Fox News contributor who previously served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under former President Trump, is preparing to engage in a series of virtual town halls with his nonprofit, Border911 Inc.

He intends for the town halls to bring awareness to the facts about the consequences of the ongoing crisis at the southern border, including sex trafficking and the smuggling of fentanyl into the U.S.

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As part of that, Homan is challenging the narrative by Harris that she is tough on border security. A recent ad by Harris said that “fixing the border is tough, so is Kamala Harris.”

President Trump and acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thomas Homan talk during a law enforcement roundtable on sanctuary cities in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 20, 2018. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Border911 Inc., which is led by experts on border and national security from both Republican and Democratic administrations, is releasing a video that instead points to past comments by Harris that it says conflict with that narrative. 

They include her saying she was open to “starting from scratch” with ICE, decriminalizing illegal crossings, saying she supported “sanctuary” city laws and comparing ICE to the Ku Klux Klan as a senator.

“Kamala Harris wants everyone to believe she’s some border hawk now. But going all the way back to her days as DA in San Francisco, her statements and policies make it clear where she stands,” Homan, who served under multiple administrations, told Fox News Digital. “The fact is, she’s an open borders radical and, along with Joe Biden, she’s personally responsible for the current crisis.”

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Republicans and the Trump campaign have zeroed in on the border, including Harris’ role in tackling root causes of migration. They have linked the historic highs seen during the border crisis to the policies of the Biden-Harris administration, including the ending of Trump-era policies they see as having successfully brought the border under control.

Conservatives have sought to paint Harris as a radical on illegal immigration, pointing to many of the same remarks featured in the video, just as the Harris campaign has sought to present her as the right candidate for border security.

A Harris campaign adviser told Fox News last month that Harris’ positions have been “shaped by three years of effective governance as part of the Biden-Harris administration.”

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute leadership conference in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Her campaign said she believes illegal border crossings are illegal and supports “continuing to ensure sufficient resources to enforce our laws and prioritize detention and removal for individuals who pose threats to public safety and national security, as well as ensure compliance with immigration proceedings and decisions, including removal.”

More broadly, it has pointed to her backing of the bipartisan Senate package that emerged from negotiations in the chamber earlier this year, which increases funding for the border, including ICE bed space and a mechanism to limit asylum entries into the U.S. Conservatives said that bill would only serve to codify high levels of illegal immigration.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

“The only ‘plan’ Donald Trump has to secure our border is ripping mothers from their children and a few xenophobic placards at the Republican National Convention. He tanked the bipartisan border security deal because, for Donald Trump, this has never been about solutions, just running on a problem,” Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said in a statement. 

“Like everything with Donald Trump, it’s never been about helping the country, it’s only about helping himself. There’s only one candidate in this race who will fight for bipartisan solutions to strengthen border security, and that’s Vice President Harris,” he said.

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Homan, however, says he isn’t trying to tell voters who they should pick in November, just to present the facts.

“We want to show the American people the truth so they can make their own decisions,” he told Fox News Digital.