ICE Queen: Harris Compares Immigration Workers to KKK

by Tony Perkins: A normal job interview is stressful, but one before the U.S. Senate? Democrats can make that downright painful. A parade of President Trump's nominees -- from the budget office to Supreme Court -- have had to endure character assassination, ridicule, faith smears, and now, comparisons to the Ku Klux Klan.

As the migrant caravan inches closer to the U.S. border, Senate leaders are trying to make sure a key component is in place if and when they arrive: a new chief for the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Under the circumstances, anyone in the running for the office has to be made of tough stuff. With the immigration debate at a fever pitch -- and Democrats doing everything they can to undermine the administration's work -- any nominee would have their hands full.

But for Ronald Vitiello, his confirmation hearing was good practice for the kinds of attacks he'll face for enforcing the law. Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who could have another job as a professional agitator after the latest string of nomination hearings, decided to take a shot at everyone working to secure America. "Are you aware of the perception of many about how the power and the discretion at ICE is being used to enforce the laws and do you see any parallels [with the KKK]?," she asked a stunned Vitiello.

"I do not see a parallel," he fired back, "between what is constitutionally mandated as it relates to the law" and a white supremacist group. Undeterred, Harris pushed on. "No, I'm very specific about what I'm asking you. Are you aware of a perception that the way--" "I see no perception that puts ICE in the same category as the KKK. Is that what you're asking me?" a visibly offended Vitiello replied. "I'm not finished," Harris snapped. "I see none," he said again. "I'm not finished," she told him angrily. "Are you aware that there's a perception that ICE is administering its power in a way that is causing fear and intimidation, particularly among immigrants -- and specifically immigrants from Mexico and Central America...?

"I do not see a parallel," he said again, "between the power and authority ICE has to do its job and the agents who do it professionally and excellently with lots of compassion-- " Interrupting him, Harris demanded to know how he could "be the head of an agency and be unaware of how your agency is perceived by certainly communities?" To his credit Vitiello looked her straight in the eye and said there are a "lot of perceptions in the media and the public that are incorrect..."

The clip of Harris infuriated the man Vitiello would be replacing, Thomas Homan, who retired this summer. "I wanted to throw up," he told Fox News's Shannon Bream. "[We] disagree on a lot of things... [but] what she did today was disgusting. She put her political ambitions to be the president ahead of truth and ahead of the dignity of the men and women who serve this country." Others piled on, calling out Harris for slurring the thousands of brave men and women working to protect America's border. "Like lazy trolls who call cops Nazis, it is grossly irresponsible to compare anything other than violent racist terrorists to the #KKK. Kamala Harris is way too savvy to be so intellectually lazy. She should apologize to #ICE agents now." GOP spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany also took deep offense on behalf of the brave people in uniform. "What utter, complete & horrifying disrespect for our law enforcement officers. I get she's auditioning for 2020, but come on."

To a lot of liberals, ICE represents what Democrats have come to despise: the rule of law. Whether it's abortion, religious liberty, or immigration, extremists are having trouble adjusting to an administration that respects the democratic process. That's quite a contrast to Barack Obama, who treated U.S. immigration policy with the same disregard he had for every law that hindered his makeover of America. "We've arrived," Jonathan Tobin argues in National Review, "at a point when the law and policy arguments about how best to enforce it have become irrelevant." When ICE agents are refashioned as fascists and illegal aliens become default martyrs then "there is no more middle ground."

In the end, it's nothing personal. ICE is just one in a long line of institutions the Left would like to abolish in its pursuit of complete and utter anarchy. Their vision is a world where laws are like gender: whatever you want them to be.
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Tony Perkins is President of the Family Research Council . This article was on Tony Perkin's Washington Update and written with the aid of FRC senior writers.

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