'Political liability': Trump warned appointee could do damage 'if let loose to run wild'
Reacting to new unsympathetic comments from Donald Trump's pick to be his "border czar" about the fate of children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants, conservative political advisor Brendan Buck suggested the president-elect rein his nominee in.
During a recent NBC News interview, Tom Homan was asked about a move in San Diego by the Board of Supervisors to restrict local law enforcement from helping round up immigrants which led the Trump nominee to reply, "I'm shocked that San Diego did it and, bottom line, we're going to come to San Diego and do our job. It is more difficult, but we're still doing it."
Pressed about the American-born children, Homan bluntly stated, "Our plan, we have to plan to separate children from parents. The parents will have to make a decision. That is parenting 101. If you choose to have a child here in the United States while you know you're here illegally and on a court order to deport, that is on you."
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Asked about the border czar's candid response, conservative Buck first told MSNBC host Christina Ruffini, "The how is really important, not just the what here. Immigration enforcement as a concept is very popular and there is a lot of things that Donald Trump could be doing in a few weeks here, in a few months, that I think would be really beneficial to him."
"When it comes to the interior enforcement, though, I think Donald Trump appreciates that," he elaborated. "When he gets asked about this in any more specificity, he always pivots to, 'We're going to start by going after the criminals and the dangerous people who are here.' Now that is a much easier said than done. If people knew that there were dangerous criminals here, we would be deporting them already. So, I think he understands after the experience of his first term that there are ways that you could do this become really unpopular."
"If we know anything about Donald Trump, he wants to be popular," he continued. "I think Tom Homan here is a political liability. Tom Homan clearly has so much zeal for this issue and such disregard for the views of other people on this, that if he's let loose to run wild on this, he could do stuff damaging to Donald Trump politically, not to mention the real world effects to the people here in this country."
"So I think this is something that Donald Trump needs to keep a close eye on, not just let Tom Homan do whatever he wishes," he advised.
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