Border czar Tom Homan is not happy with South Park’s latest episode mocking the Trump administration’s mass deportation plan by ridiculing Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Joining Chris Cuomo on his News Nation show on Thursday evening, Homan remained straight-faced while talking about the satirical show’s depiction of ICE recruiting unqualified citizens to conduct immigration raids while covering their faces in shame.
“I thought the parody was just in bad form and certainly, certainly bad timing,” Homan said on Cuomo.
Homan, who served as the acting director of ICE during Trump’s first administration, said the show was wrong to poke fun at ICE agents who often wear face coverings, hats, and sunglasses to protect their identities.
Homan claimed rhetoric that mocks ICE “emboldened” the “small percentage of the left” who assault ICE officers to continue attacks. He claimed that assaults on ICE agents were up “over a thousand percent.”
“Whether it’s throwing Molotov cocktails or threatening ICE agents, or putting hands on ICE agents, they feel emboldened the more and more they see this bad rhetoric coming out,” Homan said
Public reaction to immigration raids has mainly been adverse and spurred some attacks on ICE agents, including doxxing incidents in which people have shared information about the person behind the ICE uniform. Some ICE agents have also become targets of violent physical attacks and Molotov cocktail attacks.
To counteract incidents, ICE agents have tried to conceal their identities while on the job, and the federal government has used the National Guard or military to protect agents as they take suspects into custody.
South Park’s latest episode, titled “Got a Nut,” aimed at the Trump administration, in a similar manner to the season 27 premiere. This time, it critiqued the Trump administration’s anti-immigration agenda.
In the episode, Noem is depicted as a dog-shooting law enforcement officer who asks ICE recruits to racially profile people while conducting immigration raids.
Mr. Mackey, the dim-witted guidance counselor at South Park Elementary School, decides to sign up to be an ICE agent to increase funding to the school, which has been reduced as a result of government cuts – a reference to the Department of Government Efficiency’s work.
The joke is that ICE has low standards when hiring recruits.
In the episode, Vice President JD Vance is also featured as Trump’s physically small sidekick.
In a statement from the Department of Homeland Security, a spokesperson said, “We want to thank South Park for drawing attention to ICE law enforcement recruitment. We are calling on patriotic Americans to help us remove murderers, gang members, pedophiles, and other violent criminals from our country.
“Benefits available to new ICE recruits include an up to $50,000 signing bonus, student loan forgiveness, and retirement benefits,” the statement continued.
Homan echoed the benefits of joining ICE on Thursday evening, saying that the agency chose to open up the opportunity to recruits because it was in such high demand.
