When President Trump sends members of his administration to do the television circuit, he’s not sending his brightest. (Not that anyone in the Trump administration is bright.) But in a string of right-wing cable appearances on Monday, immigration czar Tom Homan proved he might be the least bright.
Homan, who’s previously called for lawmakers supportive of immigration sanctuary cities to be charged with crimes, spent much of his airtime going on obsessive, incoherent rants about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). At some points, he appeared to threaten her, but at most points, he disparaged her intelligence while making clear that he himself doesn’t know the laws.
Homan takes particular issue with Ocasio-Cortez hosting workshops and disseminating information to immigrant communities about their rights to turn away ICE agents who lack warrants. “She wants to go out saying she’s teaching people their constitutional rights, yeah, you can call it that. We all know what she’s up to,” Homan said on Fox News. “She wants to tell these people how they evade arrest.” Right-wingers, led by Homan, are increasingly, desperately trying to frame teaching the law as breaking it. That’s because, to state the obvious, it’s much easier to violate people’s rights when they don’t know their rights—which is something the Trump administration is counting on to carry out its mass deportation campaign.
Still, even Sean Hannity, whose last words would probably be “thank you President Trump” if Trump shot him in broad daylight, had to ask Homan some clarifying questions: “I’m sure a free speech argument can be made,” he said. “OK, she has every right to say anything she wants. When does it cross a line into aiding and abetting lawbreaking?”
This is why you fight these cowards. The moment you stand up to them, they crumble. Homan has nothing. The Fourth Amendment is clear and I am well within my duties to educate people of their rights. He can threaten me with jail and call names all he wants. He’s got nothing else.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@aoc.bsky.social) February 18, 2025 at 8:47 AM
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“That’s exactly the question I posed to the deputy attorney general,” Homan responded, making it clear he’s asked Trump’s Justice Department to invent something to charge Ocasio-Cortez with. Homan himself can’t name a single law Ocasio-Cortez has broken; he instead stammered accusations that she’s committed “impedement,” which isn’t even a word. Still, Homan maintained that he’s asked the DOJ to “look into it… I know that through my career, someone steps in front of, between you and the person you’re arresting, yeah that’s a violation. But at what point do you cross a line on saying you’re educating people, versus, you’re teaching them on how to evade ICE arrest?” Sure.
Homan, as you’ve probably pieced together, isn’t exactly a glowing intellectual. This makes it particularly ironic that, later on Monday, he stopped by Newsmax and described Ocasio-Cortez—one of the most effective communicators in American politics and the youngest woman ever elected to Congress—as “the dumbest congresswoman ever elected to Congress.”
“This is why you fight these cowards,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in response to Homan’s personal insult. “The moment you stand up to them, they crumble. Homan has nothing. The Fourth Amendment is clear and I am well within my duties to educate people of their rights.” She continued, “He can threaten me with jail & call names all he wants. He’s got nothing else.”
Last week, Homan first raised that he’s “working with the Department of Justice” to find something to charge Ocasio-Cortez with. “So, maybe AOC’s gonna be in trouble now,” he said. In response, Ocasio-Cortez suggested he “learn to read.”
“MaYbe shE’s goiNg to be in TroUble nOw” Maybe he can learn to read. The Constitution would be a good place to start
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@aoc.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 7:01 AM
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“MaYbe shE’s goiNg to be in TroUble nOw” Maybe he can learn to read. The Constitution would be a good place to start
For the last month, Homan has railed against education campaigns helping immigrant communities. One week into Trump’s presidency, he stopped by CNN and complained that Chicago residents are “very well educated,” which has rendered it more difficult to conduct ICE sweeps. “They call it ‘know your rights.’ I call it how to escape from ICE.” All of this is as glowing an endorsement as any to keep sharing know your rights materials on social media—it might feel small, but it can clearly make all the difference.
If Homan’s name sounds familiar, he ran ICE under the first Trump administration and also helped write Project 2025, the 900-page far-right agenda for Trump’s presidency that calls for the administration to end birthright citizenship and establish a system of mass deportations. Trump repeatedly insisted on the campaign trail that he knew nothing about Project 2025, but that should have been an obvious lie, as he simultaneously pledged to hire the likes of Homan.
Ocasio-Cortez isn’t the only Democrat who’s been baselessly accused of criminality by xenophobic MAGA politicians. Last week, freshman Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) launched a fundraiser-petition calling for Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) deportation, also for hosting know your rights workshops. “Frankly, America would be a much better place if she were to be sent back to Somalia. The time has come to arrest and deport Ilhan Omar,” the unhinged fundraising says, further accusing Omar of “treason” and “facilitating a full-scale invasion of our country.” Omar has aptly called Gill a “dumbass.”
Last modified: February 20, 2025
