Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Tom Homan will be the “border czar” in the Trump administration, President-elect Donald Trump announced in the Truth Social newspaper.
Homan, a staunch Trump supporter, will be responsible for the mass deportations Trump has promised during the 2024 campaign.
“I have known Tom for a long time, and there is no one better to monitor and control our Borders,” Trump wrote in his message Sunday evening.
“Tom Homan will also be responsible for all Deportations of illegal aliens back to their country of origin. Congratulations to Tom. I have no doubt that he will do a wonderful job, and it is long overdue,” Trump added.
Homan oversaw ICE during the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” enforcement of separating parents from their children at the border.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) estimates that between 500 and 1,000 families have not been reunited.
WASHINGTON – MARCH 15: Tom Homan, FOX News contributor and former head of the Trump Administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) delivered the keynote address at the Columbiana County Lincoln Day Dinner in Salem, Ohio on Friday, March 15, 2024. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag
In August, ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt told ABC News that it’s impossible to know an exact number because not all of them have been found.
In an interview on “60 Minutes” in October, Homan said that future family splits should be considered, but also that “families can be kicked out together.”
With immigration a top issue for voters, Trump has said he is determined to round up and deport millions of illegal immigrants living in the US.
He reiterated his campaign commitment implement mass deportations On “Day 1”, at his rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden in October.
“On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history to get criminals out,” he said. “I will rescue all the cities and towns that have been invaded and conquered, and we will put these vile, bloodthirsty criminals in jail, then drive them out of our country as quickly as possible.”
To that end, the former president said he would use local law enforcement and the National Guard to find migrants living across the US.
Trump has opposed the Biden administration’s immigration policies, saying in part they have made America less safe, however the statistics show it US-born citizens are twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes than undocumented immigrants.
An estimated 11 million people live in this country without legal immigration status.
If feasible, deporting one million undocumented immigrants per year would cost more than $88 billion, totaling $967.9 billion over 10 years. a report From the American Immigration Council.
ABC News’ Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García and Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
