So, when I learned that Tom Homan, acting director of ICE and a central architect of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns, was born and raised in West Carthage, I felt two things at once: surprise and recognition. Surprise, because very few people from my neck of the woods rise to national prominence in government. Recognition, because Homan’s brand of xenophobic nationalism — his cold efficiency in tearing families apart — is not some foreign strain in the North Country. It’s native to the soil.