Homan fires back at Booker after senator voices 'outrage' over ICE airport deployments
Border czar Tom Homan fired back at Sen. Cory Booker on Monday after the New Jersey Democrat blasted the Trump administration’s decision to deploy ICE agents to U.S. airports and called the move an "outrage."
"[Trump is] taking the very same agency that has been bursting into our schools, into our churches, into our hospitals, into our courts, and even into the homes of Americans," Booker said at Newark Liberty International Airport.
"He's taking that agency that is reckless and out of control and bringing them to our airports under the lie that somehow this is going to help deal with the long lines that he created in the first place," he added.
Homan responded during an appearance on "Hannity," telling the Fox News host that Booker is "driving the violence" against ICE agents by sending the wrong message.
"He's misleading the American people, he is lying," Homan said.
"I want him to give me one example, just one, when ICE went into a church to arrest somebody, or we went into a hospital to arrest somebody, or we went to an elementary school to arrest somebody. Just give me just one example. You know why he can't? Because there isn't any."
Homan added that he could recall one occasion in which the agency pursued an illegal immigrant who ran into an education center.
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"You're damn right, we went in there and arrested him near the front door," he said.
"But as far as planned enforcement operations in those places, [it] hasn't happened. [As a] matter of fact, the only people that violated the sanctuary of the church was Don Lemon and that group that went in there [into a church in St. Paul, Minnesota] to attack Trump supporters while they were having a religious service."
Booker's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Homan's remarks come amid Democratic outrage over President Donald Trump's decision to deploy ICE agents to U.S. airports as a lingering DHS funding lapse wreaks havoc on travelers across the country.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is among the top Democrats who have voiced opposition to the decision, alleging "untrained" ICE agents could jeopardize traveler safety by "brutaliz[ing]" or even "kill[ing]" Americans.