(NewsNation) — President-elect Donald Trump plans to appoint Tom Homan, who was acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first term, to be his “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”), including, but not limited to, the Southern Border, the Northern Border, all Maritime, and Aviation Security,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform late Sunday.
“I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders. Likewise, Tom Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin. Congratulations to Tom. I have no doubt he will do a fantastic, and long awaited for, job,” Trump added.
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Homan served as acting director of ICE from January 2017 through June 2018. He oversaw the early stages of the Trump administration’s controversial family separation policy, in which migrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without permission were criminally charged or referred for prosecution.
Last year, Homan defended the controversial policy of separating family members of those who entered the U.S. illegally.
“I’m sick and tired hearing about the family separation,” Homan told the Conservative Political Action Conference last year. “You know, I’m still being sued over that, so come get me. I don’t give a s***, right. Bottom line is, we enforced the law.”
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“When I was a cop in New York and I arrested a father for domestic violence, or someone for [driving under the influence], I separated that family,” he continued. “When you violate the law with a child, you’re going to be separated.”
Homan voiced an equally strong message at the Republican National Convention in July.
“I got a message to the millions of illegal aliens that Joe Biden has released into our country in violation of federal law: You better start packing now,” he said.
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Homan’s career began in West Carthage, New York, where he was a police officer. Later, he joined what was then known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
After positions as a border patrol agent, investigator and supervisor, he was appointed by then-President Barack Obama to be the Executive Associate Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2013.
Since retiring as acting ICE director in 2018, Homan joined the Heritage Foundation, and was a contributor to its Project 2025, the purported blueprint for Trump’s second term.