This week, DHS Secretary John Kelly has made a lot of noise about the fact that sweeping raids and deportations are working, but it's all smoke for a far larger problem.
As Kelly admitted today on CBS' Face the Nation, he hasn't got the vaguest clue about how to stop homegrown terrorists, no matter whether they are ISIS sympathizers or sovereign citizens, apparently.
When John Dickerson pointed out that the attack in France came from a French-born citizen and asked Kelly what he could learn from that, Kelly threw his hands in the air. Verbally, at least.
He answered, "Obviously, you got the homegrown terrorists. I don't know how to stop that. I don't know how to detect that."
Staying with the Trump party line, he turned back to the border.
"You got other terrorist threats that come across the border," Kelly said. "I believe in the case of the murder, in the Paris shooting I believe he was homegrown. But, again, there are so many threats that come in from across border. And it's essential absolutely to control one's border."
The most recent spate of killings at the hands of domestic terrorists have not come across the border. They were born and raised here. But Kelly was undeterred.
Dickerson pressed him on homegrown terrorists a little later but Kelly stuck to his talking points.
"It's a big threat. Is it the number one threat? I think it's the most common threat.," he insisted. "I think the appeal I would make on the homegrown threat is if you see something, say something."
In other words, it might be common, but it's really no big deal.
Here's what I think. I think homegrown terrorists -- especially white, gun-toting haters -- don't fit with the urgency of fomenting hatred against brown people. So Kelly is going to stay on those talking points, demonizing families and hard-working people who are undocumented rather than admit his own lack of desire to take on the threat of domestic terrorism right here at home.
Update:
The CATO Institute (!!!) notes a GAO report which says that 71% of terrorist attacks in the US come from far-right extremists who are NOT Muslim. (Or brown, most likely)
Of the 85 violent extremist incidents that resulted in death since September 12, 2001, far right wing violent extremist groups were responsible for 62 (73 percent) while radical Islamist violent extremists were responsible for 23 (27 percent).