Homan: We 'Can’t Wait' for Illegals to Commit Crime Before Finding Them
Analysis Summary
The article highlights a hardline stance on immigration enforcement, using emotional stories of victims—particularly parents who lost children—to argue that deporting undocumented immigrants, including those without criminal records, is a moral duty. It emphasizes a surge in arrests and frames opposition to these policies as ignoring victims, while not including any perspectives from affected immigrant communities or data on actual crime rates among undocumented populations.
Cross-Outlet PSYOP Detected
This article is part of a narrative being pushed across multiple outlets:
FATE Analysis
Four dimensions of psychological manipulation: how content captures Focus, exploits Authority, triggers Tribal identity, and engineers Emotion.
Focus signals
"ICE had a record number of arrests in the last five days. They broke every record in the book, you know, 10,000 arrests in less than five days."
The framing of 'breaking every record in the book' and the specific, round number '10,000 arrests' serves to capture attention through quantified novelty and urgency, suggesting a significant escalation in enforcement activity. This creates a spike in perceived operational intensity, drawing focus to the scale and speed of enforcement actions.
Authority signals
"As you see, ICE had a record number of arrests in the last five days."
The mention of ICE as the enforcing body relies on institutional credibility, but this is standard attribution in reporting on law enforcement operations. The article does not inflate ICE's authority beyond its operational role or use credentials to shut down questioning. It is reporting a claim made by a political appointee about agency activity, not invoking institutional status to override scrutiny.
Tribe signals
"We got to arrest these people. We can’t wait for them to commit another crime to find them. We got to find the criminals and the non-criminals, and that’s exactly what we’re doing."
The repeated use of 'we' versus 'them' constructs a clear tribal boundary between enforcement actors and undocumented immigrants, including non-criminals. This de-individualizes the latter group and frames them collectively as a target, reinforcing an in-group (enforcement, victims, Americans) versus out-group (undocumented immigrants) dichotomy.
"Tom, does Governor Haley of Massachusetts and her ilk ever, ever address the suffering of these American victims?"
The term 'her ilk' weaponizes political identity, reducing opposition figures to a stigmatized category associated with neglect of 'American victims.' This converts policy disagreement into moral tribal allegiance, reinforcing that concern for immigration enforcement defines patriotic belonging.
"She’ll be on TV saying she’s not a sanctuary state. She said 100 times when, in fact, she is."
This quote implies bad faith and deception on the part of a political opponent, framing dissent from the administration's policy as not just incorrect but dishonest. It subtly pressures alignment by suggesting that those who deny supporting sanctuary policies are either lying or out of touch with reality, inviting audience suspicion toward such figures.
Emotion signals
"I’ve met with hundreds of angel mom and dads... parents who buried their children."
The invocation of 'angel moms and dads'—a known rhetorical construct referring to parents who lost children to crimes involving undocumented immigrants—deliberately triggers moral outrage and grief. By centering these personal tragedies, the speaker channels intense emotion to justify broad enforcement measures, including against non-criminals, linking policy to visceral loss.
"We can’t wait for them to commit another crime to find them."
This statement frames undocumented immigrants as latent criminal threats, engineering fear by suggesting that enforcement must be preemptive because danger is imminent. It bypasses empirical risk assessment and instead relies on emotional anticipation of harm to justify sweeping actions.
"That’s the reason, one of the top reasons I came back out of retirement twice for President Trump is because of the stories I’ve been told by parents who buried their children."
Homan positions himself as morally compelled by personal testimonies of grief, framing his policy actions as a sacred duty. This appeals to moral righteousness, elevating enforcement as a form of redemptive service and implying that opposition lacks compassion for victims.
Narrative Analysis (PCP)
How the article reshapes thinking: Perception (what beliefs are targeted), Context (what information is shifted or omitted), and Permission (what behavior is being encouraged).
The article seeks to instill the belief that proactive, large-scale immigration enforcement is a necessary and morally justified response to past tragedies involving victims of crime committed by undocumented immigrants. It links immigration enforcement directly to emotional narratives of victimized families—specifically 'angel moms and dads'—to frame enforcement not as a political or administrative choice, but as a moral imperative driven by empathy for victims.
The article shifts the context by associating immigration status directly with criminal threat, implying that waiting for a crime to occur before enforcement would be negligent. It creates a norm where preemptive enforcement of immigration laws—even against non-criminals—is presented as not only acceptable but necessary due to past harms.
The article omits data or discussion about the actual crime rates among undocumented immigrants compared to the general population, as well as legal distinctions between criminal and civil immigration violations. It also omits any survivor or community perspectives from affected immigrant populations, particularly Haitians losing Temporary Protected Status, which would provide balance on the human impact of accelerated deportations.
The article implicitly grants permission for readers to support or demand aggressive, preemptive immigration enforcement—even against non-criminal individuals—by framing such actions as a moral duty to victims and national safety. It normalizes high arrest numbers and targeted group actions (e.g., Haitians) as justified responses to emotional trauma.
SMRP Pattern
Four manipulation maintenance tactics: Socializing the idea as normal, Minimizing concerns, Rationalizing with logic, and Projecting blame.
""ICE had a record number of arrests in the last five days. They broke every record in the book, you know, 10,000 arrests in less than five days. We turned the heat up...""
""We can’t wait for them to commit another crime to find them. We got to find the criminals and the non-criminals, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.""
""She’ll be on TV saying she’s not a sanctuary state. She said 100 times when, in fact, she is.""
Red Flags
High-severity indicators: silencing dissent, coordinated messaging, or weaponizing identity to shut down debate.
""Tom, does Governor Haley of Massachusetts and her ilk ever, ever address the suffering of these American victims?""
""you and I have talked about this before... parents who buried their children..." — positions empathy with victims as a defining identity marker; opposing views are implicitly cast as indifferent or immoral"
Techniques Found(6)
Specific propaganda techniques identified using the SemEval-2023 academic taxonomy of 23 techniques across 6 categories.
"I’ve met with hundreds of angel mom and dads. That’s the reason, one of the top reasons I came back out of retirement twice for President Trump is because of the stories I’ve been told by parents who buried their children."
This statement appeals to grief and loss—powerful emotions—by invoking parents who have buried their children, framing immigration enforcement as a moral imperative driven by victimization. While the emotional appeal is used to justify policy, it is not supported by data in this context but rather by personal narrative, fitting an emotional justification strategy.
"angel mom and dads"
The term 'angel mom and dads' is emotionally charged and valorizes a specific group of victims (parents who lost children, often due to crimes involving undocumented immigrants), pre-framing the immigration debate in highly moralized and sentimental terms. This phrasing serves to emotionally predispose the audience toward supporting aggressive deportation policies.
"ICE had a record number of arrests in the last five days. They broke every record in the book, you know, 10,000 arrests in less than five days."
The phrase 'broke every record in the book' is hyperbolic—it implies unprecedented achievement without specifying which records were broken or providing comparative context. This exaggeration inflates the perceived scale and success of the enforcement action beyond what the available information supports.
"We can’t wait for them to commit another crime to find them. We got to find the criminals and the non-criminals, and that’s exactly what we’re doing."
This statement reduces the complex issue of immigration enforcement to a binary narrative—individuals must be removed regardless of criminal status because some undocumented individuals may commit crimes. It simplifies the causal relationship between immigration status and crime, implying broad enforcement is necessary without engaging with systemic or policy nuance.
"Governor Haley of Massachusetts and her ilk"
The phrase 'her ilk' dismissively categorizes Governor Haley and others who oppose the policy as belonging to a negatively perceived group, implying they are part of a broader problematic class without engaging with their actual arguments.
"does Governor Haley of Massachusetts and her ilk ever, ever address the suffering of these American victims?"
The term 'American victims' is used to draw a nationalistic distinction, emphasizing the worth of certain lives (American, native-born) over others, invoking patriotic concern for domestic citizens while implicitly marginalizing non-citizens. This plays on national identity to justify policy emotionally.