Homeland Security Sec. John Kelly praised acting ICE director Tom Homan on Friday, in the wake of blistering criticism Homan has received from the ICE union. “I have complete faith in the work that Tom Homan is doing to enforce our nation’s laws and support the men and women of ICE,” Sec. Kelly exclusively told The Daily Beast. “We are fortunate that he was willing to come out of retirement to take on such an important task and I am thankful each day that he is on the job.” Homan’s appointment to run ICE, which came in January, shocked many in the agency, since he was expected to retire (his colleagues even threw him a retirement party). In the months since then, the ICE union has ripped Homan for his time working in the Obama administration, most recently in a July 1 Breitbart story. A DHS official criticized the union’s president, Chris Crane, to The Daily Beast on background on Thursday. Kelly’s statement is a strong indicator that DHS senior leadership has full confidence in Homan despite the union’s criticism.

—Betsy Woodruff