Ronald Vitiello, the new acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was among the attendees and an interviewee at an event hosted by an anti-immigrant hate group last week, where he dismissed the Trump administration’s barbaric “zero tolerance” policy at the U.S./Mexico border, saying that “only 2,500 people were affected by that situation.”
“That situation” was 2,500 children ripped from the arms of their parents and thrown into cages and detention facilities, where they’ve been forcibly drugged, physically abused, and emotionally brutalized. The administration still has over 200 children under U.S. custody, in blatant violation of a judge’s order. This should be a shameful mark on Trump officials, but they’ve already shown themselves to be incapable of feeling shame. Just look at the actions.
Vitiello’s appearance at the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s (FAIR) annual “Hold Their Feet to the Fire” event is gross, yet not a surprise. Donald Trump has stacked top posts in his administration with hate group leaders and anti-immigrant activists, including positions that are supposed to advocate for immigrants and immigration to the United States. Nor is Vitiello the first senior Trump official to canoodle with hate groups like FAIR.
In April, Thomas Homan, the previous acting ICE director, sat down with the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), another FAIR-affiliated hate group. Homan was a favorite of anti-immigrant activists, not just for letting ICE agents run amok, but for also going onto state news television to advocate for the prosecution of pro-immigrant leaders. "We gotta take [sanctuary cities] to court,” he told Fox News last February, “and we gotta start charging some of these politicians with crimes.” Authoritarians of a feather flock together.
Homan’s radicalism is what probably contributed to his retirement, thankfully. While he had been tapped to lead ICE, his nomination never went before the Senate for a vote, with many speculating it would have failed. He’s now gone, but Vitiello’s appearance at an event organized by a group founded by a eugenicist who once said “that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority,” points to him as yet another radical nominee. The Senate should reject him.