Save for laterFormer U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Thomas Homan testified before a House subcommittee hearing Wednesday afternoon on the administration's immigration policy toward people with significant medical issues. He used more than half of his allotted five minutes for an opening statement to deliver a message on the political theater of hearings to members of the House Oversight Committee.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Thomas Homan, then-Executive Associate Director of Enforcement And Removal Operations at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in February 2016. (CQ Roll Call File Photo)
Protesters hold cardboard hearts up in front of the Homestead migrant children detention facility. They hope the children across the fence can see them. (Jinitzail Hernández/CQ Roll Call)
The immigration debate in southern Florida is not like those of any of the other detention centers around the U.S. Homestead sits on 55-acres of land sandwiched between buildings abandoned due to hurricane damage and the Homestead Air Reserve Base. The ground is a mix of gravel and grass and locals say heavy rains hit every afternoon.
CQ on Congress, Episode 161
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is one of the lawmakers voicing concerns about the conditions in migrant detention centers. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
The Trump administration says it will round up undocumented immigrants who have missed a court date in an effort to deter others migrants from seeking refuge in the United States. But raids could exacerbate family separations, report CQ Roll Call’s Tanvi Misra and Jinitzail Hernandez, who just returned from visiting one of the largest migrant detention centers in Homestead, Fla., where the government is holding 2,000 teenage immigrants.
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, attends a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center on Democrats' year end priorities including "reauthorizing the Children's Health Insurance Program, funding community health centers, and passing the Dream Act," on December 14, 2017. Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call
At ICE headquarters, Rep. Mark Pocan passes out ‘missing’ fliers for FOIA request on Wisconsin raids
Progressive caucus co-chair seeks justification for ICE raids as Democrats struggle with agency‘s detention policies
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., stands outside the headquarters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday, passing out “missing” fliers to call attention to a Freedom of Information Act request the agency has yet to respond to regarding documentation for 83 arrests the agency made in Wisconsin last September. (Thomas McKinless/CQ Roll Call)
Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan says the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has been unresponsive to his inquiries about raids conducted in his home state. So the Democratic lawmaker was forced to resort to somewhat desperate measures.
Pocan stood outside ICE headquarters Wednesday morning in Washington, passing out fliers to employees as they headed into work that read in bold red type: “MISSING: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS FOIA REQUEST?”
