“Trump faces growing Republican criticism over ICE weeks before midterm elections”, 2 October 2026 (Photo via Washington Examiner — the original report)
As it ran on the front
Start on Sept. 14. Tom Homan tells reporters ICE has no plans to "sweep polling locations" for noncitizens — a denial that only exists because someone asked, which means someone had reason to. Four days later, Secretary Markwayne Mullin goes after Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar for running an ad that said enforcement had "gone too far." That's the party line as of Sept. 18: hold.
Six days after that, the line is already cracking from the inside. Sept. 24, a Common Dreams dispatch headlined "Cowardice, Not Conviction" catalogs Republicans scrambling to distance themselves from Trump as his approval sinks to record lows less than six weeks from the midterms — battleground Senate candidates in Iowa and Michigan calling for an end to his immigration approach, the paper's own framing, not ours. The same day, at a Justice Department event, Homan tells the room ICE is "not going anywhere" and "you can hate us all you want." Same week, two different audiences, two different postures.…
…(cont) Then the paperwork catches up to the posture. A House GOP report says Illinois and Chicago released more than 500 immigrants despite active ICE detainers — the agency's allies calling it too soft. In the same stretch, DHS separately denies a report claiming agents were told to arrest only the worst offenders — the agency defending itself against being too narrow. Both complaints, same month, same department. That's not an overreach case. That's two contradictory defenses of the same agency, filed within weeks of each other by the people running it.
So Homan dares critics to name one example of ICE going too far. He doesn't have to wait for an answer. A sitting New Jersey congresswoman gives birth while still fighting federal charges from an ICE facility protest. Two examples, same week, on the record before Homan finishes the sentence.
And by Oct. 2, the Washington Examiner has the cowardice arriving on schedule: a growing number of House and Senate Republicans, privately and publicly, stepping out of line with the administration's deportation approach, weeks before the midterms land. It isn't new — it's the same retreat Common Dreams clocked eight days earlier, running on the same clock, dressed as sudden conscience. The dare was never about whether ICE went too far. It was about who'd still be standing next to the agency when the receipts came due. Fewer of them every week.
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“You got a guy daring you to name one example while the example's giving birth in a holding cell waiting room and the neighbors are climbing a roof to do the job the government won't. That's not confidence, that's a man betting nobody's paying attention — and for about a week, his own party wasn't either, until the polls made them look.”
“Look, Secretary Homan is simply asking critics to back up their claims with specifics, that's just due diligence — and if a few members are getting cold feet five weeks out, that's not panic, that's — well, it is panic, I said that out loud, didn't I. The record stands on its own, which is sort of the problem.”
Some Republicans are stepping out of line with the Trump administration’s immigration agenda just weeks ahead of the midterm elections, criticizing how the White House has deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Over the past week, House and Senate lawmakers have privately and publicly spoken out against or questioned President…
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