Trump announces Tom Homan, his former acting ICE director, as the administration’s “border czar.”

CNN
—

President-elect Donald Trump announced Sunday evening that Tom Homan, who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during his final term, will be in charge of the country’s borders.

“I am pleased to announce that former ICE Director and loyal border enforcement expert Tom Homan will be joining the Trump Administration responsible for our nation’s borders (“Border Czar”), including but not limited to the southern border , Northern border, all maritime and air security,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social late Sunday.

The president-elect added that there is “no one better at policing and controlling our borders” and that Homan “will be responsible for all deportation of illegal aliens back to their country of origin.”

The former acting ICE director contributed to Project 2025, the sweeping conservative blueprint for the next Republican president that Trump distanced himself from during his campaign.

CNN reported earlier Sunday that Trump was expected to tap Homan for a czar-like role.

CNN has reached out to Homan for comment.

Immigration was a cornerstone of Trump’s 2024 campaign, and he repeatedly promised to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

In a recent interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Homan argued that “families could be deported together” when asked about Trump’s promise to carry out mass deportations immediately after taking office. He also argued that these efforts would be targeted, although exact plans for how they would be carried out – and how much they would cost – remain to be seen.

“There will be no mass searches of neighborhoods. It will not be about building concentration camps. I’ve read everything. It’s ridiculous,” Homan told CBS.

As a sign of his influence in Trump’s circle, Homan gave a speech at the Republican National Convention in July.

“I got a message to the millions of illegal immigrants that Joe Biden has released into our country in violation of federal law: You better start packing now,” Homan said on stage in Milwaukee. “You’re damn right.”

Homan, a career law enforcement official, was the public face of the first Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to strengthen immigration enforcement before retiring in 2018. He served in that role on an interim basis from the beginning of the Trump administration, although he was never confirmed by the Senate because he had already been the deputy for the post.

Homan often took to the microphone — including at White House briefings — to defend his agents’ arrests of undocumented immigrants, call for stricter enforcement and attack sanctuary city policies. At one point he told Congress that undocumented immigrants “should be afraid.”

Homan also led an immigration system that took record numbers of immigrant children into U.S. custody. In September 2017, Homan said at a public event that his agency would arrest undocumented people who came forward to care for the children, something previous administrations had avoided.

“You can’t hide in the shadows,” Homan said at a Border Patrol event in Washington, adding that parents should be “shoulder to shoulder” with their children in court. “We will at least involve the parents in immigration proceedings. …Is that cruel? I do not believe that.”

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

Tal Kopan, Eli Watkins, Catherine E. Shoichet and Jack Forrest contributed to this report.