President-elect Donald Trump announced his choice to take charge of the border on Sunday night, naming Tom Homan as his “border czar.”
Homan is no stranger to the role, having served as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s last administration from 2017 to 2018.
“I am pleased to announce that the Former ICE Director, and stalwart on Border Control, Tom Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration, in charge of our Nation‘s Borders (‘The Border Czar’), including, but not limited to, the Southern Border, the Northern Border, all Maritime, and Aviation Security,” Trump announced on Truth Social late Sunday.
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“I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders,” Trump added. “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.”
The announcement was soon followed up with a congratulatory post from Elon Musk: “Congratulations @RealTomHoman on being given responsibility for enforcing our borders!”
Homan has been vocal on the issue of the border; he was an early supporter of the “zero-tolerance” policy, while CNN reported in July that Homan contributed proposals to Project 2025 to reform the country’s immigration laws. When asked last month in an interview on 60 Minutes whether there was a way to carry out mass deportation without separating families, Homan responded, “Of course there is. Families can be deported together.”
Speaking during the National Conservatism conference in July, according to Semafor, Homan said, “Trump comes back in January, I’ll be on his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen... They ain’t seen sh-t yet. Wait until 2025.”
That same month, Homan appeared at the Republican National Convention with a message to his party. “I got a message to the millions of illegal aliens that Joe Biden has released into our country in violation of federal law: You better start packing now. You’re damn right.”
Homan is yet to publicly speak on the announcement.
In a Fox News interview on Sunday, however, Homan provided some insight on what to expect: “It‘s going to be the worst first... that’s how it has to be done,” he said, adding, “It’s going to be a well-targeted, planned operation conducted by the men of ICE. The men and women of ICE do this daily. They’re good at it.”
