‘Grow a backbone’: Border czar Homan fires back at heckler who interrupted TPUSA event

Border czar Tom Homan fired back at a heckler during a Turning Point USA conference at the University of Texas at El Paso on Thursday.

During the event, Homan spoke and answered questions from the audience, which numbered roughly 500.

'I don't want anybody hurt. I don't want anybody to die — that includes officers and that includes aliens.'

He compared the border security under the Trump administration to that of the previous White House, describing the difference between them as "night and day."

"There was 12,000 a day sometimes crossing the border illegally," Homan said, referring to illegal crossings under the Biden administration. "You know what it was yesterday — 106 across 2,000 miles of border. And those 106, not a single one of those were released into the United States."

The audience erupted in applause.

Homan debunked the legacy media's narrative claiming that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is disproportionately arresting non-criminals. He stated that the most recent stats indicated that 64% of immigration arrests were of criminals.

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Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

He slammed the media and immigration enforcement critics for labeling him the architect of "family separations."

"It wasn't done to punish. It was done in an attempt to save lives and stop sexual assaults, and maybe control the border," Homan said.

"You are a racist!" a heckler shouted. "You are destroying the Constitution!"

The audience responded with boos and drowned out the heckler's rant by chanting, "USA!"

Homan continued his speech unfazed by the disturbance, explaining that the Biden administration lost track of over 300,000 unaccompanied alien children and had not attempted to locate them. He reported that the Trump administration had already located 40,000 of those children.

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Photo by BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images

"Every night [when] I go to bed, I pray for the safety and security of every Border Patrol agent, ICE agent, and I pray for everybody that we're looking for," Homan said. "I don't want anybody hurt. I don't want anybody to die — that includes officers and that includes aliens. ... Call me what you want."

"Traitor!" a heckler shouted back.

Homan replied by telling the heckler to "grow a backbone, put a Kevlar vest and a gun on your hip, and go secure this border!"

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