For the first time in US history, military aircraft were used this past week to deport scores of undocumented migrants from the United States. Middle schools, Trump Administration officials say, are seen as places to conduct immigration enforcement operations. And, according to President Trump’s “border czar,” all undocumented immigrants should worry that they could be arrested at any time, even if they have a criminal record.
“Border czar,” says Tom Homan, is part of an effort to send a “clear message” that “the country is being illegally entered,” ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz said Sunday.
“If we don’t show the consequences, you’re never going to solve the border problem,” he said.
Donald Trump’s more than 11 million immigrants in the US must be assured that Donald Trump will take unprecedented action to remove as many as possible and stem the flow of more migrants coming to the southern border.
Tom Homan appears “this week”, January 26, 2025.
ABC News
In office, Trump declared a national emergency at the border, ending the so-called “catch and release” practice – when migrants claim asylum they are given court dates and then await proceedings. and sought to overturn the constitutional right to birthright citizenship, a move that immediately faced legal challenges and was temporarily blocked by a federal judge.
For the millions of undocumented immigrants already in the country, Homan said the administration is doing “as much as possible,” starting with security threats and national security threats, Homan said.
According to estimates released last year by House Republicans, based on government data, the number of undocumented migrants in the country have been convicted of or have criminal charges against them. Government statistics show that over the past four years hundreds of migrants have been caught at the southern border with names matching known or suspected terrorists on a government list. And Homan said that more than 2 million people were detected at the border, but never caught, the authorities do not know who they are or what threat they might pose.
According to statistics released by the Department of Homeland Security last year, a small fraction of those who obtained the border in the first three years had no criminal record, and most did not have non-criminal offenses, such as driving under the influence, or had previously entered the country illegally.
Homan told ABC news that the Trump Administration is “in the early stages of its deportation plan,” making security threats and threats to national security a “priority,” but that “as it opens the door,” there will be more arrests at the national level.
And he warned that there will be “arrest warrants”, especially in the so-called “sanctuary cities”. immigration and customs enforcement officers located and detained undocumented immigrants already in local custody.
“Sanctuary cities keep us out of jails,” said Homan, who served as ice director in the first Trump administration.
According to Homan, it raises significant security concerns: When immigrants not arrested for serious crimes are released by local authorities, rather than deported, “it depends on the community.”
However, Homan said that’s what ice officers would do to “warrant arrest.”
“When we find it, it will be with others … (and) illegally, even if they are illegal, they are coming,” he said.
He stressed that anyone in the country illegally is “on the table”.
“It’s not okay to break the laws of this country,” he said. “We’ve got millions of people online, taking the test, doing their screening, paying the fees that want to get on the right track.”
“So if you’re in the country illegally, you have a problem,” he said.
On Monday, Trump’s first day in office, Homeland Security Secretary Benjamina Huffman issued a directive telling immigration officials in so-called “sensitive” areas that there had been restrictions during the Biden Administration.
“Criminals can no longer hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” he said in a statement.
Others, however, said that the administration was only creating fear within the immigrant community, with the president of the US Catholic bishops’ commission, about migration “paying attention, healing and to places of fear and uncertainty … will notice that our communities will become safer.
He said that they prioritize threats to national security and threats to public safety, ice officers should also attend schools, “Many”, linked to members of the south and central America, for example, are between 13 and 17 years old. .
In an interview with ABC News, Homan said that no law enforcement agency is limited to the same type of ice in certain locations.
“Name another agency, another enforcement agency, that has those kinds of requirements, they can’t come into a school or doctor’s office or medical campuses,” he said. “No other agency is held to those standards.”
“These are the (ice) officers who have a lot of discretion, and when it’s a sensitive location, there’s still going to be an oversight review,” he said. “But ice officials should have the discretion to (whether) there is a national security threat or a public safety threat (at) one of these facilities.”
Homan said anyone already in the country illegally “should leave,” and those planning to claim asylum “should go through the legal process.”
“Go to the embassy, go to the entry point,” he said. “You shouldn’t come to this country and ask for asylum and the first thing you do is break our laws by entering illegally.”
Meanwhile, Homan said the Trump administration is not only using the military, but the “entire” government, including the Justice Department, to support its deportation plan, which allows ice officials to concentrate on enforcement operations.
But Homan acknowledged that the federal government can’t remove all undocumented immigrants from the US, and its “success will depend on what Congress gives us.”
ICE does not have enough funding in Congress to detain all the undocumented immigrants the Trump Administration has indicated it intends to detain.
“I’m realistic,” he said. “We can do what we can do. We will try to be efficient. But with more money, the more we can achieve.”
“What price (did) you put on national security?” he added. “When you don’t secure that border, that’s when security threats come into the country. That’s when sex trafficking goes up. That’s, you know, that’s when fentanyl comes in.”
As the end of the Trump administration appears to be nearly successful, Homan said, “Our success every day is getting the security threat off the streets or the national security threat out of here.”
