Tom Homan will be the “border czar” during the new administration of Donald Trump in the United States. Homan was director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service and assured that once he is in office, his priority will be to deport irregular migrants.
The new administration of the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, designated someone who will be “in charge” of supervising the irregular entries of migrants at the border and prioritizing the deportation of undocumented immigrants. The responsibility will be Tom Homan.
Homan, former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was named by Trump earlier this week as his “border czar,” ensuring that he will not only be in charge of the southern border with Mexico, but the northern limit, maritime and aviation security.
The 62-year-old new manager has studies in Criminal Justice, was a police officer in the state of New York, and in 1984 began working as a Border Patrol agent. Under Barack Obama he was associate executive director of ICE enforcement and deportation operations, where he carried out a record number of deportations.
Homan also worked in Trump's first term for a year and a half, and during President Joe Biden's administration, he has been critical of the management of the border and the record numbers of irregular migrants who have crossed through it. After 2018 he began contributing to the Fox News network as an analyst.
It is not clear what kind of official position Homan will have starting with Trump's inauguration in January 2025, taking into account that immigration in the US is coordinated by different agencies under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
A long history in immigration policy
Homan has been crucial in immigration policies implemented during the first Trump administration, and was also one of the defenders of the strategy of separating children from their parents as a way to prevent irregular entries into the country.
Under the “zero tolerance” policy, minors were held in shelters while parents faced legal cases for entering the country irregularly. Additionally, during his tenure as acting ICE chief, Homan rejected accusations that agents acted too aggressively.
In February 2022, he joined the Heritage Foundation as a collaborator and drafted Project 2025, which proposes a conservative “manual” on how the government should be restructured under Trump's new mandate. The president-elect, however, distanced himself from the text during his campaign.
On immigration, Project 2025 states that the current DHS has “failed” to “secure and strengthen” the border, and proposes that ICE have custody of migrants with criminal records, eliminate certain types of visas and eliminate Temporary Protected Status ( TPS).
What does Tom Homan propose?
Looking ahead to his new position, Homan assured in different interviews that the Army would not be used to locate and detain immigrants, however, he has been clear that the strategy of “mass deportation” would begin from “day one,” prioritizing criminals or people who are a “risk to national security.”
In addition, he has indicated that he would reintroduce arrests of irregular immigrants in the workplace, a measure that Biden stopped in 2021.
In an interview on the Fox News channel's “Sunday Morning Futures” program, Homan stated that the US military would not be used to locate and detain immigrants, a responsibility that will fall to ICE, which will work to carry out Trump's plans for a “humane way” in what will be a “necessary” and “well directed and planned” operation.
Lily Axelrod, an immigration attorney in Tennessee, told the Voice of America that one of the challenges that the new administration could face is having all the necessary resources to deport millions of people. However, they could use strategies such as going to immigration interviews or detaining those with final deportation orders.
“The people who are easiest to expel are those who already have a deportation order. An immigration judge already ordered them deported and they haven't left or maybe they did leave and came back without permission, or maybe they were ordered removed from the border and somehow they came back,” Axelrod explained.
Regarding the separation of families, the Immigration lawyer explained that there are two possible ways to address the situation. On the one hand, there are families that arrive at the border together and seek asylum with their minor children, and on the other, there are families already established in the United States that have undocumented members and American citizens.
“They are two different forms of family separation. The truth is that there is no right in US law that allows people to remain in the country solely because of family relationships,” he added.
The Pew Research Center estimates that about 4 million U.S. citizen children live with an undocumented parent.
In other interviews, when asked if deportations can be done without separating families, Homan responded: “of course yes, families can be deported together.” Furthermore, he has assured that there will be no “grace period” for undocumented “criminals” and invited these people to “self-deport.”
“There is no such thing as self-deportation or immigration law, although, if you have been ordered deported, you have an actual deportation order, but you leave on your own… you get on a plane a day Next, instead of waiting to be picked up and forcibly removed, you are executing your own deportation order,” Axelrod added.
Andrew Seele, president of the Migration Policy Center, said in an interview with the NPR radio network that “it will be very likely” that Homan's strategy begins with canceling humanitarian parole for Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Haitians.
Trump also plans to name another immigration hardliner, Stephen Miller, as deputy chief of staff for policy, according to US media reports.
Besides, proposed South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as DHS secretaryreplacing Alejandro Mayorkas.
Another important appointment for relations with Latin America would be that of Marco Rubio as Secretary of the State Department. Rubio is a senator from Florida and 2016 Republican presidential candidate.
If officially nominated, he would become the first Latino to serve as the United States' top diplomat once the Republican president-elect takes office in January.
Although Tom Homan's role does not require Senate confirmation, by protocol Rubio must be confirmed in Congress to occupy the position permanently.