President-elect Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he is appointing Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to take “charge of our Nation’s Borders.”
Homan made a name for himself during the first Trump administration after being appointed acting director of ICE and immediately began ramping up deportations. In the first three months of Trump’s first term and under Homan’s leadership, ICE arrested more than 41,000 illegal immigrants, which was a 38% increase over the same period from the year before. Homan impressed Trump as acting director, and the president tapped him to lead ICE permanently, but in April 2018, Homan announced that he was retiring over “family and personal considerations.”
Shortly after he stepped down, Homan testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship. He got into a heated exchange with Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) while urging Democrats in Congress to work with the Trump administration.
“Look, you want to know why there’s fifty thousand people in detention? You want to know why we’re having one million illegal entries in the United States? You want to know why we have these issues? Because you have failed to secure the border,” Homan said. “You have failed to support this president to close the three loopholes we’ve asked for two years to close. You want to know why this issue exists? You need to look in the mirror. You have failed the American people by not securing the border and closing loopholes.”
After Jayapal scolded Homan for speaking past his time and not respecting “the chair’s authority,” he replied, “You work for me. I’m a taxpayer.”
In case you aren’t familiar with Donald Trump’s new Border Czar Tom Homan 🔥
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 11, 2024
Homan joined the Heritage Foundation in 2022, contributing to Project 2025, a conservative “mandate for leadership” for a new Trump administration from which Trump distanced himself during the 2024 campaign. In 2022, Homan testified in a Congressional hearing over the Trump administration’s family separation policy. During that hearing, Homan responded to questioning from leftist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), saying separation policies for illegal immigrants are “the same as it is when you have a U.S. citizen parent who gets arrested when they’re with a child.”
“If I get arrested for a DUI and have a young child in the car, I’m going to be separated. When I was a police officer in New York and I arrested a father for domestic violence, I separated that father from the family,” Homan added.
“Mr. Homan, with all due respect, legal asylees are not charged with any crime,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“When you enter the country illegally, it’s a violation of United States Code 1325,” Homan shot back. “If you want to seek asylum, go through the port of entry, do it the legal way. The attorney general of the United States has made that clear.”
Meet our new border czar, Tom Homan: pic.twitter.com/A7k3Opzv5S
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 11, 2024
Homan took the stage and spoke at the Republican National Convention in July, blasting the Biden administration’s border policies.
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“Here’s what you need to know — this isn’t mismanagement, this isn’t incompetence; this is by design. It is a choice,” Homan said. “It’s national suicide.”
“As a guy who spent 34 years deporting illegal aliens, I got a message to the millions of illegal aliens that Joe Biden released into our country in violation of federal law: you’d better start packing now — you’re damn right — because you’re going home,” Homan added. “I’ve got another message to the criminal cartels in Mexico: you’ve smuggled enough fentanyl across this country to kill a hundred-forty-eight thousand young Americans. You have killed more Americans than every terrorist organization in the world combined. And … when President Trump gets back in office, he’s going to designate you a terrorist organization. He’s going to wipe you off the face of the earth. You’re done!”
“As a guy who spent 34 years deporting illegal aliens, I got a message, to the millions of illegal aliens that Joe Biden released into our country… you’d better start packing now – you’re damn right – because you’re going home.”
– Trump border czar pick Tom Homan RNC 7-17-2024 pic.twitter.com/BM4ahjXjZ7
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) November 11, 2024
Just three months later, Homan was interviewed on “60 Minutes” and again asked about family separation policies.
“Is there a way to carry out mass deportation without separating families?” asked CBS News’ Cecilia Vega.
“Of course there is. Families can be deported together,” Homan replied.
Cecilia Vega asks: “Is there a way to carry out mass deportation without separating families?”
“Of course there is. Families can be deported together,” says Tom Homan, head of ICE during Trump’s family separation policy. https://t.co/If9G1sNEzj pic.twitter.com/TIWhi25Vdu
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 28, 2024
