Trump names immigration official Tom Homan as ‘border czar’ | Migration News

Tough immigration official Tom Homan will be responsible for policing U.S. borders in the new Republican administration, President-elect Donald Trump said.

“I am pleased to announce that former ICE Director and trusted border enforcement expert Tom Homan will be joining the Trump Administration in charge of our nation’s borders [‘The Border Czar’]” Trump posted late Sunday on his social network Truth Social.

“I have known Tom for a long time, and there is no one better able to monitor and control our borders,” he wrote, adding that Homan will be responsible for “all deportations of illegal aliens back to their country of origin.”

Such a role does not require confirmation by the US Senate.

Trump, 78, has promised to launch the largest deportation operation of illegal migrants in US history on the first day of his presidency. Trump, who never acknowledged his defeat in 2020, sealed a remarkable comeback to the presidency in the November 5 vote.

In 2017, when Homan was acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during Trump’s first term, the number of immigrants arrested rose nearly 40 percent compared to the previous year.

The belief that there are no barriers to people wanting to enter the country is a central part of the Trump campaign – rhetoric that portrays immigrants as criminals and a drain on the country’s resources.

“The day after I take office, the migrant invasion will end,” Trump said last week at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he called migrants “vicious and bloodthirsty criminals” and vowed to “kick them out of the country.”

As the US government has struggled for years to manage its southern border with Mexico, Trump has claimed an “invasion” of migrants is underway who he says are “raping and murdering” Americans.

In his rally speeches, he exaggerated tensions on the ground and misled his audience about immigration statistics and policies. Violent crime, which rose under Trump, has fallen in every year of President Joe Biden’s term, although foreign suspects have been named in some high-profile cases of violent attacks on women and children.

However, research shows that immigrants are less likely to commit violent crimes and undocumented workers pay taxes that contribute to social programs they do not have access to.

The number of U.S. border patrol encounters with migrants crossing “illegally” from Mexico is now about the same as in 2020, the final year of Trump’s presidency, after reaching a record 250,000 in December 2023.

Trump promised to combat migrant gangs using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 – which allows the federal government to round up and deport aliens from hostile countries – as part of a mass deportation operation he dubbed “Operation Aurora.”

Aurora was the scene of a viral video showing armed Latinos rampaging through an apartment complex, fueling widespread false narratives about the city under attack by Latino migrants. Trump has similarly spread the fictional story that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating residents’ pets.

Experts warn that the heated rhetoric surrounding immigration could worsen a humanitarian crisis at the border and make it easier to justify tough policies. Last year, the International Organization for Migration, a United Nations agency, called the journey across the U.S.-Mexico border the “deadliest overland route for migrants on record anywhere in the world.”

In an interview with Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Homan said that the U.S. military will not round up and arrest immigrants in the country illegally and that ICE will take steps 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.”

Earlier this year at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, D.C., Homan expressed frustration with coverage of a mass deportation.

“Wait until 2025,” he said, adding that while he believes the government needs to prioritize national security threats, “no one is off the table.”

“If you’re here illegally, you better look over your shoulder,” he said. “You have my word. Trump is coming back in January, I will be on his heels when he returns and carry out the largest deportation operation this country has ever seen.”