Violent attacks generated by Liberal Left in Tacoma & San Antonio other cities
By Tom Homan
WASHINGTON D.C. (Texas Insider Report) Some Democratic presidential candidates and others in their party have wrongly blamed President Donald Trump for creating a climate of hatred that encouraged the El Paso killings. The truth is President Trump is simply doing his job by securing our border and enforcing existing laws.
Just this week an ICE Office (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) was attacked in San Antonio when someone shot out upper level office building windows with a firearm. There were ICE employees in the building at the time. The GEO Office in San Antonio was also damaged by gunfire. (GEO is one of the companies that partner with law enforcement and ICE in managing detention facilities.)
In addition to such violence we see elected officials at the local state and national levels calling the Border Patrol ICE and anyone that enforces our immigration laws Nazis racists and obscene names.
Cong. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has even called federal detention facilities for illegal immigrants concentration camps" as if they were no different than the death camps where the Nazis tortured and murdered millions of Jews and others.
Its particularly disturbing that so many of the Democrat politicians news organizations and other groups that justifiably condemned the El Paso shooter for his his murderous rampage and hate-filled diatribe against Hispanics have failed to condemn the hate-filled diatribes and violence generated by extremist on the left in Tacoma WA San Antonio and other cities.
Just last month a man attacked an Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Tacoma with a firearm and tried to set the building on fire. If he had succeeded he could gave killed as many as several hundred people ICE employees and hundreds of immigrants being detained for hearings.
Before attacking the ICE facility the man sent a letter to friends that he titled a written manifesto in which he detailed his motivation to take action against the forces of evil specifically fascism" and concentration camps.
The ICE attacker was a left-wing extremist. But where is the outrage from the nearly two dozen Democrats seeking their partys presidential nomination regarding the attacks noted above coming from left-wing extremists?
Where is the outrage by the media and by the Democratic leadership in Congress?
As the former acting director of ICE I know firsthand what its like when federal law enforcement officers are targeted with threats of violence by the far left.
There should not be a double standard.
The same anti-Trump media and Democrat politicians who falsely and disingenuously portray our president as a racist who hates immigrants seldom mention that President Barack Obama deported a lot more illegal immigrants than President Trump.
In 2012 for example Obama deported nearly 410000 people a record. Last year President Trump deported just over 256000 immigrants. In his eight years as president Obama deported just under 3 million.
What have the thousands of employees of the Border Patrol and ICE done to deserve the threats of violent attack the now-actual violent assaults as well as an onslaught of verbal attacks from Democrats in Congress and the media? Like President Trump President Obama and presidents before them we enforce the laws that Congress enacted. Presidents and federal officials dont have the luxury to simply ignore laws passed by Congress. Imagine the justified uproar for example if the president said he wasnt going to enforce civil rights and anti-discrimination laws.
It seems like were fighting a small-scale civil war where people believe they have the right to harm or even kill others because of differences over political and public policy issues because they believe people belonging to another particular racial ethnic religious or other group are somehow evil or inferior and must be attacked.
This is a poisonous attitude thats not only dangerous it is un-American. Terrorism murder and acts of violence are wrong whether they come from the right or the left. They should be condemned by all Americans and all our institutions including government political parties religious institutions and the media.
When I was Acting Director of ICE I had to deal with numerous death threats against my family and myself. At one point I had round-the-clock armed protection around my home for weeks.
Border Patrol Agents along with their spouses and children have been bullied and harassed at schools churches and elsewhere because someone in their family chose to serve his or her country by joining the ranks of the Border Patrol. ICE facilities and employees across the country are being threatened and there have been numerous social media posts about hurting ICE officers.
Americans have always argued about how our government should be run and what actions it should take. For the most part weve settled our difference with ballots and not bullets the Civil War being the worst exception.
But I do think its fair to ask: Where is the outrage over left-wing extremism from the nearly two dozen Democrats seeking their partys presidential nomination?
Where is the outrage by the media and by the Democrat leadership in Congress?
Heres the bottom line: Hate is hate terrorism is terrorism and murder is murder. Politicians who condemn attacks on themselves and institutions and policies they support have an obligation to condemn such attacks on their opponents just as vigorously.
We must not let political campaigns go from a war of words to a war where people are being killed and wounded. One civil war was enough.
Thomas Homan who oversaw deportations under President Barack Obama. served as President Donald Trumps Acting Director of U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement from January 30 2017 through June 29 2018.
