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President-elect Donald Trump has tapped veteran immigration enforcer Tom Homan to serve as border czar in his second term, one of the most vital roles of the incoming administration.
Homan, 62, known as a no-nonsense border hawk, is expected to help lead a complete overhaul of policies implemented by President Joe Biden during his four years in office and the restoration of some of the Trump policies that his successor dismantled.
The focus of his new job will be to implement Trump’s promise to undertake mass deportations of illegal immigrants who came to the United States under the Biden administration.
Homan served as Trump’s acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for the first year and a half of his administration that began in January 2017.
Trump nominated Homan to become ICE director on November 14, 2017, a position that requires Senate confirmation. But in April 2018, the interim chief announced that he would leave his position in June of the same year.
Just days after winning the 2024 presidential election, Trump announced on Sunday that Homan would succeed Vice President Kamala Harris as “border czar.”
Former acting ICE Director Tom Homan (R) was announced Sunday as the new ‘border czar’ of Donald Trump’s second administration.
The border czar role, which was implemented by Biden when he nominated his vice president to the position, does not require Senate confirmation and would make Homan a White House staffer rather than a Cabinet member.
It would have no legal authority over federal agencies involved in border and immigration policies.
So who is the man who will direct the White House’s border policy?
Early life and career
Homan is from upstate New York, where he earned his degree in Criminal Justice.
He was a police officer in his hometown of West Carthage, New York, for a few years before joining in 1984 what was then called the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which was eventually renamed the United States Border Patrol.
Homan spent three decades on the force as a Border Patrol agent and also served as an investigator and supervisor for the agency over the years.
In 2013, President Barack Obama appointed him Associate Executive Director of ICE.
Homan worked for decades starting in 1984 in different positions in the Border Patrol, including as an agent, investigator and supervisor.
A year later, Homan was a vocal advocate for implementing policies that were widely criticized for separating immigrant parents from their children when they crossed the southern border illegally.
“Most parents don’t want to be separated,” he said during an interview at the time. “I’d be lying to you if I didn’t think that would have some effect.”
Obama presented Homan with the Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Executive in 2015
In an April 2016 article, the Washington Post wrote: ‘Thomas Homan deports people. And he’s really good at it.
Activity in the first Trump administration
About a week after Trump first took office in January 2017, Trump demoted acting ICE Director Daniel Ragsdale to deputy director and named Homan as acting director.
With Trump at the helm and Homan at the helm of ICE, the acting director said at the time that undocumented immigrants ‘should be afraid.’
Homan announced in May 2017 that ICE had arrested 41,319 illegal immigrants between Trump’s inauguration and the end of April, which was a 38 percent increase compared to the same period the previous year under Obama.
In April, Homan advised Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Kierstjen Nielsen to implement a “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which would prosecute parents and continue the separation of adults who brought minors to the United States illegally. from other countries.
Trump nominated Homan to be ICE director to stop “acting” from his position. He was not confirmed by the Senate before announcing six months later his intention to retire in June 2018.
Just before leaving office, Homan defended the separation policy.
Homan speaks with Border Patrol agents along the southern border wall in San Ysidro, California, on May 7, 2018.
Homan is credited with implementing ‘zero tolerance’ policies that resulted in parents being separated from their children when they illegally crossed the southern border.
Homan has received widespread criticism from Democrats and progressives who say his approach to the southern border is “inhumane.”
Democratic criticism
Much of the backlash against Homan’s policies stemmed from the fact that illegal immigrant parents were kept separate from the children they brought illegally across the southern border.
And the biggest criticism came after the 2018 midterm elections, when the ‘squad’ of progressive lawmakers took office.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a member of the so-called ‘squad,’ said during a hearing with Homan in 2019: ‘As a fellow American, I just want you to know your contribution as acting ICe director under this administration will always be remembered. as a very ruthless and inhumane administration towards asylum seekers.
“I am deeply concerned by your initial statement and the continued attack on innocent lives,” she said while criticizing him for authoring the child separation policy.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a member of the team, also attacked Homan during the House Oversight Committee hearing after Democrats took control of the House.
“Zero tolerance was interpreted as the policy that separated children from their parents,” AOC stated.
Homan, explaining the policy, said: ‘If I get arrested for DUI and I have a small child in my car, then I will be separated. When I was a cop in New York and arrested a father for domestic violence, I separated them.’
‘Mister. “Homan, with all due respect, legal asylees are not charged with any crime,” AOC responded.
“When you are in the country illegally it is violation 8 of United States Code 1325.”
“Asking for asylum is legal,” AOC insisted.
“If you want to apply for asylum and go through the port of entry, do it legally,” Homan said. “The Attorney General of the United States has made this clear.”
Democrats were immediately concerned and expressed concern over the weekend after Trump announced that Homan would return to help lead the White House’s border and immigration policies.
Homan became a Fox News contributor and public speaker after his time in the first Trump administration. He also joined the conservative Heritage Foundation as a member and founded Homeland Strategies Consulting.
Post-White House career
After his time in the White House in the first Trump administration, Homan became a contributor to Fox News.
In February 2022, he joined the conservative Heritage Foundation as a visiting fellow and contributed to its Project 2025 policy proposal that included mass deportation and detention of illegal immigrants living without documentation in the US.
He also owns the firm Homeland Strategies Consulting, is a best-selling author, and a strong public speaking voice when it comes to national security and border issues.
During the National Conservatism Conference over the summer, Homan said: ‘(If) Trump returns in January, I will be hot on his heels and lead the largest deportation force this country has ever seen. They haven’t seen anything yet. Wait until 2025.’
“If you’re here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder,” he said.
Trump said the next day at a campaign rally that he would likely bring Homan back if he won another term.
At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in July of this year, Homan called Biden’s immigration policies “national suicide.”
He told “millions of illegal aliens” to “start packing your bags.”