President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan accused members of Congress of inciting violence against ICE after an officer with the law enforcement agency fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
In an interview with “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil on Wednesday, Homan watched a video of the deadly incident but declined to comment on what he saw.
Homan responded: “I’m not going to make a judgment call on one video when there’s a hundred videos out there.”
Instead, he claimed that members of Congress have called the incident “murder,” which he said will only incite “more violence, more threats and hopefully not more bloodshed” against ICE employees.
Homan did not name any lawmakers, though a handful of House Democrats referred to the killing as a murder in social media posts throughout the day. Most lawmakers who condemned the incident did not call it a murder in their public statements.
“I’m not going to comment on an ongoing investigation,” Homan said, before pivoting to chastise those who have criticized ICE. “The comments about murder [are] going to incite … more violence, more threats and hopefully not more bloodshed.”
“It’d be unprofessional to comment on what I think happened in that situation,” Homan said. “Let the investigation play out and hold people accountable based on the investigation.”
The Department of Homeland Security quickly labeled the incident as “an act of domestic terrorism” and claimed a “violent rioter” had “weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.”
Witnesses and videos dispute the agency’s narrative.
In recent days, the Trump administration began a massive deployment of Department of Homeland Security agents to the Twin Cities area as part of an expanded immigration crackdown.
When asked by CBS News if he has ever seen an example of excessive force, Homan blamed public anger toward the agency on “false media reporting” and “hateful rhetoric” pushed by some public officials. Homan added that through his reviews, he has not seen any ICE officers “act inappropriately.”
