WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump announced late Sunday that Tom Homan, the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who backed his controversial "zero tolerance" policy, will be his administration's "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 said on Truth Social.
"I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders," the post continued. "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."
Homan touts hard-line immigration views and previously vowed to “run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen.”
Two people familiar with the decision told NBC News that Homan will have power over policy including, potentially, mass deportations. They said Homan was not vying to be the Department of Homeland Security Secretary — a job one official described as “all of the work and all of the blame,” based on Trump’s frequent firings of DHS Secretaries in his first administration.
He was an early supporter of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, which led to thousands of families being separated at the southern border. Trump eventually signed an executive order in 2018 reversing the family separation policy after public outcry.
In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that aired in October, Homan was asked whether there was a way to carry out mass deportations without separating families.
"Of course there is. Families can be deported together," he responded.
Homan is a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative group. He was a contributor to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership book. He is also the president and CEO of Border911, a nonprofit group that warns of the supposed threat posed by undocumented immigrants.
Border911 and the Heritage Foundation did not immediately respond to requests for Homan’s comment.
"It’s going to be a well-targeted, planned operation conducted by the men of ICE. The men and women of ICE do this daily. They’re good at it," Homan said Sunday in a Fox News interview, adding that deportations would be a "humane operation."
Trump frequently espoused hard-line, anti-migrant views on the campaign trail, at times decrying migrants as “poisoning the blood of our country,” “animals” and “gang members” and comparing them to the fictional cannibal Hannibal Lecter.
“They’re rough people, in many cases from jails, prisons, from mental institutions, insane asylums,” he said at a rally in March, speaking about migrants who enter the country unlawfully. “You know, insane asylums, that’s ‘Silence of the Lambs’ stuff.”
Homan is the latest person Trump has announced that will join his administration. Trump had previously announced that Susie Wiles, his co-campaign manager, would be the White House chief of staff.
