You almost have to admire the confidence.
Rep. Eric Swalwell went on CNN’s Situation Room this week and managed to completely reinvent the meaning of “homeland security.” Not tweak it. Not reinterpret it. Reinvent it.
According to Swalwell, “protecting the homeland” doesn’t mean deporting illegal immigrants.
Let that sink in.
In an appearance with Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown, Swalwell responded to recent ICE enforcement operations by suggesting that homeland security is really about protecting illegal immigrants from enforcement itself. He cited the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good during confrontations between agents and so-called “rapid response networks” opposing immigration crackdowns.
Here’s how he put it:
“I see protecting the homeland is also protecting the vulnerable immigrants who are running through the fields and factories where they work, or the woman who’s been dragged by her hair and thrown into an unmarked van, or the allies in Minnesota, you know, a nurse named Pretti and a mom named Good who were publicly executed,” Swalwell said.
Publicly executed?
That’s not just inflammatory language — that’s a complete reframing of federal law enforcement doing its job.
And he didn’t stop there.
“And so if they can put in place reforms that end that, that stop the roving terror, Democrats are with them,” Swalwell continued. “But they also have plenty of funding from, you know, H.R. 1, the big brutal bill, to continue to operate. And so we’re asking for reforms that protect everyone in the community, not just the priorities of going after the most vulnerable.”
“Roving terror.” That’s what he’s calling ICE enforcement.
Meanwhile, Border Czar Tom Homan announced that Operation Metro Surge resulted in over 12,000 illegal immigrants taken into custody before it was wound down. According to the Department of Homeland Security, attacks on ICE agents have skyrocketed by 1,300%, vehicular assaults are up 3,200%, and death threats targeting agents have increased by 8,000%. Agents have reportedly been fired upon in Illinois and California, and attacked with vehicles in multiple incidents.
That’s the actual homeland security situation.
And Swalwell’s solution? Shift the focus away from deportations and toward shielding those being targeted for removal.
This is the same Eric Swalwell who famously fell for a Chinese intelligence operation involving a suspected honeypot tied to Beijing. The same congressman who had to answer serious questions about whether a Chinese national with alleged ties to intelligence services had access to him while he served on the House Intelligence Committee.
That history makes his newfound expertise on “protecting the homeland” particularly hard to take seriously.
You’d think someone who once found himself entangled in a foreign influence scandal would tread carefully when redefining national security priorities. Instead, he’s on cable news arguing that enforcing immigration law is the real threat.
At some point, it stops being a difference of opinion and starts looking like a pattern of astonishingly bad judgment.
Homeland security used to mean securing the homeland. Now, according to Swalwell, it means something else entirely.
And yes — it really sounds as crazy as it reads.