The acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement — Thomas Homan — took aim Monday night at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for denouncing Trump’s immigration policies as “cowardly” and for accusing immigration officers of terrorizing immigrants in California.
“How dare she say we’re terrorizing immigrant communities?” Homan said in a conference call the White House organized with reporters. “Our officers are protecting the immigrant community in many ways.”
Pelosi has repeatedly declared Trump’s enforcement efforts as “cowardly,” invoking the term last year in response to a decision to end protections for Nicaraguan citizens who’ve been in the U.S. for a couple of decades, to immigration raids launched in California earlier this year and to a lawsuit the Trump administration filed last week challenging the constitutionality of three so-called sanctuary laws the state passed last year.
However, the immigration chief said Pelosi’s remarks were an insult to his officers.
