Tom Homan warns migrants about “self-deportation”: “We know who you are”

President-elect Donald Trump’s new border czar has warned migrants in the US illegally to “self-deport” before the next Trump administration.

On Monday, Trump named Tom Homan, who served as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the previous Trump administration, as border czar and charged him with trying to curb illegal immigration.

That same day, Homan appeared on Fox News, where host Sean Hannity asked him whether there would be a “grace period” in which migrants living in the U.S. illegally would have a few months to sort out their affairs before leaving the country Trump administration.

“Criminals and gang members don’t get a reprieve,” Homan responded. “As we focus on threats to public safety and national security, if you want to deport yourself, you should deport yourself because, again, we know who you are and we will come and find you.”

“So if you want to deport yourself, that’s fine. But criminals and gang members are getting no favors from this government. You came to this country illegally, which is a crime. They have committed crimes against U.S. citizens, some heinous crimes.” “You will not receive a reprieve. So we’re picking you up,” he continued.

Homan added that he is “fully in favor” of deporting migrants living in the U.S. illegally who are not criminals or gang members.

“But for the others, the non-criminals who want to deport themselves, I’m for it, because if you deport yourself, they can fix everything – their family business, whether they have a home or whatever. They can fix everything and go with their family all together,” he said.

One of Trump’s key campaign promises was to carry out the largest domestic deportation in US history. He made similar promises when he ran for president in 2016, but no more than 350,000 people were ever deported during his time in office. By comparison, then-President Barack Obama carried out 432,000 deportations in 2013, the highest annual total on record.

Trump has also said he would use the National Guard to round up migrants and invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law that allows the president to deport any non-citizen from a country with which the USA is at war.

Newsweek The Trump campaign has asked for comment on whether the president-elect supports self-deportation of migrants.

In addition to serving in Trump’s first administration, Homan also contributed to Project 2025, the conservative agenda that Trump distanced himself from during the campaign.

Project 2025 proposes that ICE detain undocumented immigrants with felony convictions, violent crimes, drunk driving, prior deportations, or other crimes deemed by law to be a threat to national or public safety.

The plan also aims to eliminate T and U visas, which provide legal status to victims of serious crimes and human trafficking who assist in law enforcement. In addition, the 2025 project calls for the repeal of Temporary Protected Status, a program that allows migrants from dangerous regions to live legally in the United States. Eliminating TPS would affect nearly 1.2 million people who hold or qualify for this status.

During Trump’s first term, TPS was suspended for about 400,000 migrants, but after lengthy legal battles, the Biden administration reinstated the program and expanded it to all affected countries.

In an interview with CBS News last month, Homan said that under Trump’s mass deportation plan, “families could be deported together.” He also said the government’s deportation efforts were targeted.

“It will not be a mass eviction of neighborhoods. It will not be the construction of concentration camps. I’ve read everything. It’s ridiculous,” Homan told CBS.

During the first Trump administration, Homan oversaw a record number of children in U.S. custody. According to CNN, 12,800 immigrant children were cared for by the Department of Health and Human Services in 2018.

In 2017, Homan announced that his agency would arrest undocumented people who came forward to care for migrant children – a policy that previous administrations had avoided.

“You can’t hide in the shadows,” Homan said at a Border Patrol event in Washington, emphasizing that parents should be “shoulder to shoulder” with their children in court.

“We will at least involve the parents in immigration proceedings,” he continued, adding: “Is that cruel? I don’t believe.”

That same year, he told Congress that migrants living in the U.S. illegally “should be afraid.”