President-Elect Trump Names Tom Homan, Former Acting ICE Director, as ‘Border Czar’

NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump says Tom Homan, his former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will serve as “border czar” in his new administration.

“I am pleased to announce that former ICE director and stalwart border control expert Tom Homan will be joining the Trump administration in charge of our nation’s borders,” he wrote on his Truth Social website late Sunday.

It was widely expected that Homan would be offered a corresponding position the border and Trump’s promises to do so start the largest deportation operation in the history of the country.

In addition to overseeing southern and northern borders and “maritime and air security,” Trump said Homan would be “responsible for all deportations of illegal aliens back to their country of origin,” a central part of his agenda.

He says he has “no doubt that Homan will do a fantastic and long-awaited job.”

Such a role does not require Senate confirmation.

In an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Homan said the military would not round up and detain immigrants in the country illegally and that ICE would try to implement Trump’s plans in a “humane manner.”

“It will be a targeted and planned operation carried out by the men of ICE. The men and women of ICE do this every day. They’re good at it,” he said. “When we go out there, we’ll know who we’re looking for. We most likely know where they will be and it will be done humanely.”

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Associated Press writer Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., contributed to this report.