() – President-elect Donald Trump announced this Sunday night that Tom Homan, who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in his last administration, will be in charge of the borders of the country.
“I am pleased to announce that former ICE Director and stalwart border control advocate Tom Homan will join the Trump Administration to be in charge of our nation’s borders (“Border Czar”), including, but not limited to, the southern border, the northern border, all maritime and aviation security,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social this Sunday night.
The president-elect added that “no one is better at policing and controlling our borders” and that Homan “will be in charge of all deportations of illegal aliens to their country of origin.”
The former acting director of ICE was a contributor to Project 2025, the broad conservative plan for the next Republican president, from which Trump distanced himself during his campaign.
reported earlier Sunday that Trump was expected to choose Homan to play a czar-like role because of his broad powers and autonomy.
has contacted Homan for comment.
Immigration was a cornerstone of Trump’s 2024 campaign, and he repeatedly promised to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
In a recent interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Homan maintained that “families could be deported together” when asked about Trump’s promise to carry out mass deportations immediately after taking office. He also maintained that this initiative would be specific, although the exact plans on how it would be carried out and how much would it cost.
“It will not be a massive cleanup of neighborhoods. It will not be about building concentration camps. I have read everything. It’s ridiculous,” Homan told CBS.
In a sign of his influence in Trump’s orbit, Homan spoke at the Republican National Convention in July.
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“I have a message for the millions of illegal immigrants that Joe Biden has released into our country in violation of federal law: You better start packing your bags now,” Homan said from the stage in Milwaukee. “They are absolutely right.”
Homan, a career police officer, was the public face of the first Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to step up immigration enforcement before retire in 2018. He temporarily served in the role from the beginning of the Trump administration, even though he was never confirmed by the Senate, because he had already been the deputy in line for the position.
Homan often took the microphone — including at White House briefings — to defend his agents’ detentions of undocumented immigrants, call for stronger law enforcement and attack “sanctuary city” policies. At one point, told Congress that undocumented immigrants “should be afraid.”
Homan also oversaw an immigration system that placed a record amount of immigrant children in US custody. In September 2017, Homan said at a public event that his agency would arrest undocumented people who showed up to care for children, something previous administrations avoided.
“You can’t hide in the shadows,” Homan said at a border security event in Washington, adding that parents should stand “shoulder to shoulder” with their children in court. “We are going to subject the parents to procedures, immigration procedures, at a minimum… Is that cruel? I don’t believe it”.
–Tal Kopan, Eli Watkins, Catherine E. Shoichet and Jack Forrest contributed to this report.
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