Trump taps former acting ICE director Tom Homan as 'border czar'

Homan has called for mass deportations

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter
Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, testifies before the House Homeland Security Committee's Border and Marine Security subcommittee on Capitol Hill on May 22, 2018, in Washington, D.C. Republican House members are calling for reform to asylum processes.
Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, testifies before the House Homeland Security Committee's Border and Marine Security subcommittee on Capitol Hill on May 22, 2018, in Washington, D.C. Republican House members are calling for reform to asylum processes. | Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump announced that former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Tom Homan will serve as "border czar" in his new administration.

"I am pleased to announce that the Former ICE Director, and stalwart on Border Control, Tom Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration, in charge of our Nation’s Borders (‘The Border Czar’), including, but not limited to, the Southern Border, the Northern Border, all Maritime, and Aviation Security," Trump said in a statement.

"I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders," he continued. "Likewise, Tom Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin. Congratulations to Tom. I have no doubt he will do a fantastic, and long awaited for, job."

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Homan is a former police officer and Border Patrol agent who served as executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations for ICE under former President Barack Obama, whose administration set a record for the number of deportations.

Homan resigned from his position as acting director of ICE in the first Trump administration in 2018 after he grew frustrated that the White House wasn't moving his nomination forward for Senate confirmation, according to The Washington Post.

While he was still in the role under Trump, Homan advocated for a "zero-tolerance" policy toward illegal immigration and became the face of the administration's controversial family separation policy, which Trump stopped via executive order in 2018 before it was ultimately rescinded by President Joe Biden.

At the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, D.C., earlier this year, Homan pledged to "run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen," as noted by the New York Post.

"Wait until 2025, no one’s off the table. If you’re here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder," he said. "You’ve got my word. Trump comes back in January, I'll be in his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen."

Since the announcement of Homan's new position, clips have gone viral on social media showing him engaging with liberal members of Congress about illegal immigration while he was in the first Trump administration.

In one clip from 2019, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., was reduced to repeatedly slamming her gavel as Homan kept speaking over her to explain how Congress failed to close loopholes to secure the border.

"I'm a taxpayer, you work for me!" Homan said as Jayapal tried to silence him.

In another clip from a House Oversight Committee hearing in 2019, Homan confronted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, R-N.Y., when she grilled him about family separations.

Homan noted that even U.S. citizens are separated from their families when they commit a crime, and that people who have entered the country illegally have also broken the law.

During an interview on "60 Minutes" last month, Homan suggested a hefty price tag for deportations is "worth it" for national security, and that families "can be deported together."

During a speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in July, Homan said to illegal immigrants, "You better start packing now, because you're going home."

Several prominent figures took to X to congratulate Homan on his appointment, including SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

"Congratulations @RealTomHoman on being given responsibility for enforcing our borders!" Musk tweeted.

Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com

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