President-elect Donald Trump announced late Sunday that he is reinstating hardline immigration official Tom Homan to oversee U.S. borders in his upcoming administration.
Homan, who previously served as the Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), will take the position of “Border Czar.”
“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”),” Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social. “I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders.”
Trump outlined that Homan will be responsible for overseeing “all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin.”
In addition to overseeing the southern and northern borders and “maritime, and aviation security,” Trump said Homan “will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin,” a central part of the President-elect’s agenda.
He says he has “no doubt” Homan “will do a fantastic, and long awaited for, job.”
In an interview with US media, Homan said the military would not be rounding up and arresting immigrants illegally, and that ICE would move to implement Trump’s plans in a “humane manner.”
“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,” he said. “When we go out there, we’re going to know who we’re looking for. We most likely know where they’re going to be, and it’s going to be done in a humane manner.”
Earlier this year at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, Homan expressed frustration at the news coverage of a mass deportation operation.
“Wait until 2025,” he said, adding that, while he thinks the government needed to prioritise national security threats, “no one’s off the table. If you’re here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder.”
He also said: “you’ve got my word. Trump comes back in January, I’ll be in his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.”
Homan, a staunch advocate of stricter immigration enforcement, led ICE during part of Trump’s first term. During the 2024 Republican National Convention, he issued a direct warning to undocumented immigrants, saying, “I have a message for the millions of illegal immigrants Joe Biden has released into our country: You better start packing now.”
The 78-year-old president-elect has pledged to initiate the “largest deportation operation of undocumented immigrants in US history” on his first day in office.
Trump has made immigration a central issue in his political agenda, frequently describing irregular migration as an “invasion” that poses a threat to the U.S. and its citizens.
Trump’s hardline rhetoric has continued to escalate tensions surrounding immigration policy. He has repeatedly claimed that migrants “poison the blood” of the United States, framing the immigration debate as an existential crisis.
Despite a drop in violent crime under President Joe Biden, Trump has used isolated incidents involving foreign-born suspects to justify stronger border enforcement.
Data also shows that immigrants, on the whole, commit fewer crimes than native-born citizens, though certain high-profile cases have sparked public outcry, especially among Trump’s base.
The number of encounters between U.S. Border Patrol and migrants attempting to cross the southern border reached a record high in December 2023, peaking at 250,000. While these numbers have since stabilized, the issue of border security remains a divisive one in American politics.
Trump has pledged to combat migrant gangs through a new initiative dubbed “Operation Aurora.” He has proposed using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows the federal government to deport foreign nationals from enemy nations, as part of a broader mass deportation strategy.
This initiative was named after the viral incident in the town of Aurora, where a widely circulated, but false, video claimed Latin American migrants had taken over an apartment complex.
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As Trump prepares for his January inauguration, his administration has begun to take shape.
On Sunday, he also informed “The New York Post” that he had offered U.S. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik the position of Ambassador to the United Nations. Stefanik, who is serving her fifth term, confirmed she had accepted the appointment, saying she was “truly honoured.”
Trump’s early cabinet appointments signal a return to his administration’s right-wing policies. Homan’s reappointment, alongside other figures aligned with Trump’s hardline stance, sets the stage for a continuation of the contentious immigration policies that characterized his first term in office.
