Over the weekend, President-elect Trump named former Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Tom Homan as the next “border czar.” The position will oversee immigration enforcement.
Homan’s career in immigration enforcement spans decades, beginning as a New York police officer and later as a Border Patrol agent. In 2013, he was appointed by the Obama administration to lead ICE’s deportation operations. During his tenure, ICE achieved record deportation numbers, and Homan was honored with the Presidential Rank Award, the highest recognition in civil service. When Trump assumed office, he promoted Homan to Acting ICE Director, where Homan became known for his uncompromising views on immigration, notably declaring that undocumented immigrants “should be afraid.”
Meet our new border czar, Tom Homan: pic.twitter.com/A7k3Opzv5S
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 11, 2024
“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 said on Truth Social.
“I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders,” the post continued. “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.”
Homan touts hard-line immigration views and previously vowed to “run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen.”
Two people familiar with the decision told NBC News that Homan will have power over policy including, potentially, mass deportations. They said Homan was not vying to be the Department of Homeland Security Secretary — a job one official described as “all of the work and all of the blame,” based on Trump’s frequent firings of DHS Secretaries in his first administration.
As a key architect of Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, Homan was instrumental in the implementation of this contentious approach, which led to the separation of thousands of migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border. Under the policy, parents were prosecuted for illegal entry, while their children were placed in shelters for unaccompanied minors, leading to prolonged family separations. Homan, along with two other officials, signed the memo that authorized the policy, according to CBS News.
In a recent interview with 60 Minutes, Homan outlined Trump’s vision for what could be the most extensive deportation effort in U.S. history—a central campaign promise. “It’s not threatening to the immigrant community,” Homan clarified regarding Trump’s pledge, “It should be threatening to the illegal immigrant community.” He underscored the importance of the policy given the “historic illegal immigration crisis.”
Homan emphasized that, under his leadership, enforcement priorities would target criminals and national security threats first, followed by non-criminal migrants with existing deportation orders.
