Former Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Thomas Homan said Monday that he considered assaulting a Democratic congressman during an immigration debate last week. At Friday’s House Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Jesús García of Illinois slammed Homan over the family separations at the southern border, questioning whether he cared about children of color and their well-being. “If you notice, I hesitated a minute before I started yelling? Because I actually think about getting up and throwing that man a beating right there in the middle of the room because when you tell somebody that’s spent their career saving lives that I don’t care about dying children and I’m a racist, that’s where I broke and that’s where I had enough,” Homan told “Fox & Friends” on Monday. Further defending himself, Homan accused the lawmakers who challenged him of engaging in “political theater” and attempting to “push their narrative and not let me speak.”

At the hearing, García took direct aim at Homan, firing off a series of questions regarding his character. ″Do you have children?” he asked. “How can you possibly allow this to happen under your watch? Do you not care? Is it because these children don’t look like children that are around you? I don’t get it. Have you ever held a deceased child in your arms?” Responding, a visibly enraged Homan called the remarks “disgusting.” “What I’ve been trying to do my 34 years serving the nation is to save lives,” he said, referring to his past as a police officer, border patrol agent and investigator with Immigration and Naturalization Services, a predecessor agency. “So for you to sit there and insult my integrity and my love for my country, and my children ― that’s why this whole thing needs to be fixed. And you’re the member of Congress. Fix it.”

Thomas Homan to @Repchuygarcia: "Your comments are disgusting…I've served my country 34 years and yes, I held a five-year-old boy in my arms…for you to sit there and insult my integrity and my love of my country and for children, that's why this whole thing needs to be fixed." pic.twitter.com/gGA7qW4RgU — CSPAN (@cspan) July 12, 2019