The acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Thomas Homan, announced his retirement on Monday, and his departure was driven in part out of frustration that his agency was cut out of negotiations with Congress over protecting so-called Dreamers, two people familiar with the situation told McClatchy.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen insisted on negotiating with members of Congress herself and would not allow Homan, Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services Francis Cissna and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan to be involved, the two people said.
“They weren’t allowed to go brief, weren’t allowed to be included,” said one former DHS official who is familiar with the negotiations.
Instead, Nielsen brought along her chief of staff, Chad Wolf, and Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Jonathan Hoffman to speak to members of Congress.
Even when lawmakers’ officers sent questions to the trio of agencies, Nielsen’s office would respond.
Homan, 56, the latest agency chief to quit the Trump administration, had planned to announce his retirement while being honored at the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association Foundation in New York Monday night.
But ICE released a statement from Homan after McClatchy and other news outlets reported he was leaving. “The decision to leave federal service after more than 34 years is bittersweet, but my family has sacrificed a lot in order for me to serve and it’s time for me to focus on them," he said.
An ICE official disputed that the Dreamer negotiations prompted Homan's departure.
"As Mr. Homan made clear, his decision to retire was driven by family and personal considerations," said Elizabeth Johnson, a spokeswoman for ICE.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a public statement, Nielsen congratulated Homan for a long career that will be highlighted Monday evening when he receives the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association Foundation’s “National Law Enforcement Leader of the Year” award.
"I know Tom is looking forward to spending more time with his family, who made their own sacrifices in order for him to lead ICE. I thank them for sharing Tom with a grateful nation," Nielsen said.
Nielsen and Homan did not disagree on policy, according to people with knowledge of the situation, but Homan told people he did not think the secretary supported him.
Homan was frustrated after a memo he signed was given to the Washington Post showing that he, Cissna and McAleenan recommended that DHS prosecute parents caught crossing the southern border illegally with their children. The memo was only leaked after it was sent to Nielsen’s office, according to three people.
In many ways, Homan became the face of Trump’s immigration enforcement policy. Arrests increased by 40 percent since Trump took office and Homan was often strongest voice in Trump’s fight against sanctuary cities, even suggesting some city leaders be arrested.
He infamously told members of Congress last year that the administration would unapologetically continue to arrest those here illegally even if they haven’t been convicted of other crimes.
“If you’re in this country illegally and you committed a crime by entering this country, you should be uncomfortable,” Homan told the House Appropriations Committee’s Homeland Security Subcommittee. “You should look over your shoulder, and you need to be worried.”
Homan, a former Border Patrol agent, planned to retire in January 2017 when President Donald Trump was inaugurated. Trump’s first DHS secretary, current White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, asked him to stay on as acting director until a replacement could be found. He was nominated by the president as director in November but had not been confirmed by the Senate.
Leon Fresco, who served as a deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department in the Obama administration, said the decision is not a surprise.
“In the end, given congressional pressure to move forward with his nomination, and given internal politics at ICE where there is a desire to move on from people who advised President Obama, it seemed inevitable that this announcement would occur,” Fresco said.
Homan was also associated with one of Obama’s more controversial policies, which allowed ICE agents to choose whether to enforce immigration laws against undocumented immigrants who committed minor offenses and against undocumented immigrants with families. Homan was in charge of implementing that policy and some hardliners on the right may have not gotten over that.
“Maybe they were looking for someone with that level of purity,” Fresco said.
Trump asked lawmakers to work to protect Dreamers after he killed an Obama-era program that granted temporary, renewable work permits to young immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children. They failed to strike a deal after he insisted the compromise include money for a border wall and cuts to legal immigration.
An ICE official said Homan, who has a 15-year-old son, is leaving due to "family considerations" and will work until June.
"He informed DHS leadership early this year that he planned to retire this summer and was asked by the secretary to remain in his position in the interim to assist with transition planning," the official said, who spoke on condition of anonymity as part of agency practice.
Franco Ordonez: 202-383-6155, @francoordonez.
Anita Kumar: 202-383-6017, @anitakumar01