CNN Reporter Confronts Trump Border Czar Over Campaign of ‘Fear’ That Led to Alex Pretti Killing

CNN senior crime and justice correspondent Shimon Prokupecz confronted Trump Border Czar Tom Homan on deportation missions “creating fear” that led to the killing of Alex Pretti, asking, “How did we get here?”

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump sidelined senior Border Patrol official Greg Bovino in favor of Homan after the killing of Alex Pretti over the weekend.

Homan held a press conference that was carried on Thursday’s edition of CNN News Central, during which Prokupecz asked Homan to explain what he described as a campaign of “fear.”

Homan delivered a lengthy response blaming the resistance for the surge of enforcement agents:

SHIMON PROKUPECZ: Mr. Homan, how did we get here? In terms of–.

You had Greg Bovino, who was the face of this immigration operation, the mission, as you say, to having Border Patrol agents in the interior of this country, stopping U.S. Citizens, asking them for ID, creating this fear in places like Chicago and now here.

And then finally, it took really the death of Alex Pretti for us to get here.

How did that happen? Who made the decisions to allow this kind of operation to proceed in this way and to create such fear?

TRUMP BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN: Well, look the Border Patrol, last four years under Joe Biden, we had an open border where 10, 12,000 people a day were coming across the border.

The Border Patrol got overwhelmed, which means we sent thousands of ICE agents down there to help deal with that humanitarian crisis to help secure the border, now we have millions of people released in this nation, many unvetted.

Now we got to find them. Before the big, beautiful bill, we had a total just under 5,000 deportation officers to look for millions of people. Millions of public safety threats.

So yes, we needed the Border Patrol to come and help on our mission now. And the reason for the massive deployment is because of the threats, because of violence.

Our officers need to be protected. If I’m on an arrest team, I’m going to a house, I’ve got to be busy with that guy, the dangerous guy, And I can’t keep looking on my shoulder at what’s happening outside the house.

So we brought extra resources in to provide that security. And as I said, as we drill down on these great agreements we got and this great understanding we have, it means less. So we can draw down those resources.

When the violence decreases, we can draw down the resources.

But based on the discussions I’ve had with the governor and the AG, we can start drawing down those resources as far as those looking for public safety threats being released.

Watch above via CNN News Central.

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