\u201cI said in March, if the rhetoric doesn\u2019t stop, there is gonna be bloodshed,\u201d said Homan.<\/b>
\nThe Trump administration\u2019s new head of Operation Metro Surge, \u201cborder czar\u201d Tom Homan, suggested on Thursday that anti-ICE protests forced federal agents\u2019 hand in the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, in a chilling statement on free speech.
In remarks at the Bishop Whipple Federal Building, the site of many protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis, Homan vowed to continue ICE\u2019s presence in the region \u201cuntil the problem is gone.\u201d He said, however, that protesters must end their \u201crhetoric\u201d against the invasion, saying that, the more people protest, the more Department of Homeland Security agents the administration will send in.
\u201cWe got to stop the rhetoric, the hateful rhetoric, that has caused an increase in assaults,\u201d he said, referring to the administration\u2019s false claim that DHS agents are facing a 1,000 percent increase in attacks against them. This claim has been thoroughly debunked, including by the fact that the vast majority of cases have represented extremely minor charges or been reduced to no charges at all.
\u201cI begged for the last two months on TV for the rhetoric to stop. I said in March, if the rhetoric doesn\u2019t stop, there is gonna be bloodshed. And there has been,\u201d Homan continued. \u201cI wish I wasn\u2019t right. I don\u2019t want to see anybody die.\u201d
He went on to say that those opposing ICE shouldn\u2019t be protesting on the streets in their own communities, but instead targeting Congress.
\u201cIf you don\u2019t like what ICE is doing, instead of protesting this building, go protest Congress,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have your First Amendment rights. I support that. You have the right to protest, I\u2019m just asking you keep it peaceful. But threatening law enforcement officers, engaging in impeding and obstruction and assault is never okay and there will be zero tolerance.\u201d
Homan\u2019s remarks suggest that he believes it was the fault of protesters that DHS agents killed Pretti and Good, whom he never mentioned by name \u2014 rather than acknowledging that top administration officials like Vice President JD Vance and Stephen Miller have repeatedly told agents to act as though they have \u201cabsolute immunity.\u201d
Remarks like Homan\u2019s and others by the administration also seek to redefine what constitutes violence, painting federal agents as the victims without acknowledging that the quickest way to dissipate protests is for the administration to heed demonstrators\u2019 demands and withdraw.
The so-called border czar says agents will go after anyone participating in \u201cimpeding and obstruction and assault,\u201d but Pretti and Good were not doing any of those things at the time of their killings.
Video taken by the ICE agent who killed Good, Jonathan Ross, shows that Good wasn\u2019t blocking officers at all when Ross shot her three times; in fact, she was seemingly trying to de-escalate, saying \u201cThat\u2019s fine, dude. I\u2019m not mad at you.\u201d
Footage of Pretti\u2019s killing by Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection agents, meanwhile, shows that Pretti was merely filming agents with his phone when they began to assault him. Though officials have cited his possession of a gun as the reason for his execution-style death, even an internal DHS review has found that he never brandished his firearm.<\/p>\n