President-elect Donald Trump has named former ICE Director Tom Homan as “border czar,” as the incoming president plans to launch what he calls the largest deportation operation in the country’s history, a continuation of border policies. hardliners that Homan oversaw under the first Trump administration.
Key data
Homan led Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the first 18 months of the Trump administration after decades of experience in ICE and Border Patrol, and has since been an outspoken supporter of Trump policies and has repeatedly defended deportation efforts.
Homan spoke repeatedly over the past few months about Trump’s plan to deport large numbers of undocumented immigrants during a second term, including restarting workplace arrests as a strategy to carry out a mass deportation operation. human” but “necessary”.
He said the plan will work under a “worst first” policy, meaning criminals and threats to national security will be targeted for deportation before other immigrants.
Earlier this year, Homan predicted at the National Conservatism Conference that Trump’s return to power would also mean his return as an immigration official: “They haven’t seen anything yet. Wait until 2025.”
Homan is best known for his role in a “zero tolerance” immigration policy under Trump that sought to immediately prosecute anyone who crossed the border illegally and saw parents detained while their children were taken and placed separately in the custody of the Bureau. of Refugee Relocation.
Thousands of children were separated from their parents under the controversial policy until Trump signed an executive order ending family separation, but Homan has continued to defend the practice and in 2018 said it was no different than an American child being separated from his father who committed a crime within the country’s borders (Homan told “60 Minutes” that it is “not true” to suggest he was one of the architects of the plan, but he signed it).
In 2023, Homan told guests at the Conservative Political Action Conference that he was “sick” of hearing about family separations: “You know, they’re still suing me for it, so come get me. I don’t give a shit, do I? The bottom line is that we enforced the law.”
Peg News
On Sunday, Trump announced that Homan will be “in charge” of the country’s borders during the next administration. On his Truth Social platform, he called Homan “hardcore on border control” and said “there is no one better to police and control” the borders. Homan will not have to be confirmed by the Senate to start his new job. Trump has not yet said who will serve as Secretary of Homeland Security.
Key background
Homan, who has worked as a Fox News contributor since retiring as ICE director during Trump’s first term, has decades of experience working in immigration law enforcement. He worked in the former Immigration and Naturalization Service as a Border Patrol agent and special agent before becoming Deputy Director of Law Enforcement at ICE Headquarters in Washington, DC. In 2013, Homan was promoted to executive associate director of law enforcement and deportation operations by President Barack Obama, who later presented him with a Presidential Rank Award for extraordinary achievement. Homan was appointed acting director of ICE in 2017 by Trump and retired from the position in June 2018. During his time in office, Homan said that undocumented immigrants should “be afraid” under the Trump administration and that “all people are on the table” for deportation.
Crucial ideals
“Thomas Homan deports people and he is very good at it,” The Washington Post wrote in 2016.
What to take into account
Last week, Homan told Fox Business that the Trump administration would revive an effort to sue sanctuary cities and revoke their federal funding. He has been a vocal opponent of sanctuary cities and states, where local law enforcement officials are instructed not to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. In 2018, Homan said politicians in those districts should be held “personally responsible” for crimes committed by people living in the United States illegally.
Contra
Homan has defended the harsh border policies he has pursued and fought claims that they are cruel and costly. Last week, he said Trump’s deportation plan would cost less than the “billions of dollars we’re spending now on housing, health care, feeding and caring for millions of illegal aliens that the (Biden) administration has released in USA”. In 2017, he said he believes so strongly in the country’s immigration policies because he has seen the dangers those who try to immigrate illegally face if they are not deterred. Homan said he has seen “dead migrants on a trail who were stranded” and organizations that “held people hostage, raped women, sexually abused children, killed people who couldn’t pay their smuggling fees, doubled their smuggling fees after they arrived in the United States.”
Surprising fact
Private prison stocks Geo Group and CoeCivic rose on Monday after Homan’s appointment was announced. Geo Group was up 6.7% at 10 a.m. and CoreCivic was up 7.5%.
This article was originally published by Forbes US.
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