President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday announced that former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Thomas Homan will be his “border czar” in the new administration.
Who is Homan, and what is he likely to do?
“I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders. 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,” Trump said on Truth Social on Sunday.
Homan is a former New York state police officer and former Border Patrol agent. He was tapped by the Obama administration to lead ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations and was given an award for his efforts in deporting illegal immigrants.
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President Trump and Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thomas Homan talk during a law enforcement roundtable at the White House on March 20, 2018. (Jabin Botsford/Washington Post via Getty Images)
In a 2016 profile, the Washington Post said of Homan, “Thomas Homan deports people. And he’s really good at it.” But Homan said that was a badge of honor, and he had that story framed in his office.
When Trump was elected in 2016, he named Homan the acting director of the entire agency, and Homan became one of the main faces of the first Trump administration in its first years and a fierce advocate for broader deportations. President-elect Trump has promised to launch a “historic” mass deportation campaign in his second term.
His involvement in the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, which involved the separation of minors from accompanying adults, made him a lightning rod for controversy for Democrats, some of whom sought to abolish the agency entirely.
Homan repeatedly clashed with top Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., at House hearings, clashes that went viral and are still regularly shared on social media platforms today. In his clash with Ocasio-Cortez, Homan defended the separation of families.
“If I get arrested for DUI and I have a young child in the car, I’m going to be separated,” he said.
“Mr. Homan, with all due respect, legal asylees are not charged with any crime,” AOC said.
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Homan shot back, “When you enter the country illegally, it’s violation 8 United States code 1325. … If you want to seek asylum, go through the port of entry, do it the legal way.”
Jayapal, in a clash with Homan at a Judiciary subcommittee hearing in 2019, resorted to banging her gavel when he wouldn’t back down when his time expired.
“I’m a taxpayer, you work for me,” Homan told Jayapal.
In interviews, Homan has been similarly blunt and has a reputation for answering clearly and directly to questions posed to him. When asked in a 60 Minutes interview last month how family deportations could occur without family separation, Homan replied, “Families can be deported together.”
On Friday, days before he was announced as border czar, Homan spoke to Fox News Digital about what mass deportations would look like, downplaying some of what he saw as overheated rhetoric from the left.
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“It’s not going to be a massive sweep of neighborhoods, it’s not going to be massive raids. It’s going to be a targeted enforcement operation,” he said, promising that national security and public safety threats would be targeted first.
However, he warned that it does not mean anyone is off the table: “If you’re in a country illegally, you’ve got a problem.”
He also had a warning to states that have promised to resist any deportation efforts.
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“We have a mandate. I think the American people just gave President Trump a mandate. That’s why he’s elected, to secure the border, save lives and deport people, especially national security threats and public safety threats. So if you’re not going to help us, step aside, but don’t get in our way, because there will be consequences.”