Tom Homan’s Anticipated Approach to Immigration as Trump’s ‘Border Tsar’

Veteran immigration official Tom Homan is set to take charge of the country’s borders following Trump’s inauguration in January. With a career spanning decades in law enforcement and border operations, attention will focus on his strategies to reduce illegal immigration into the US, a key policy of Trump’s election campaign. So, how will he undertake this responsibility? Homan, a former policeman and previous acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), has characterized immigration at the US border as “the biggest national security vulnerability this nation has seen since 9/11 and we have to fix it.” Addressing illegal immigrants in the US during the Republican National Convention in the summer, he declared: “You better start packing now.” However, the specific contours of his role as “border tsar” are not yet defined, as immigration management requires coordination among various government agencies. He has, nonetheless, offered some insights into his prospective border approach. In an interview with CBS News’s 60 Minutes in October, conducted prior to Trump’s election, Homan indicated his intention to target non-criminal immigrants who are in the country illegally, after initially prioritizing “public safety threats” and “national security threats.” Such a strategy would reverse Biden administration policies that direct Ice to concentrate on deporting serious criminals, national security threats, and recent border crossers. The current Biden policy provides protection to undocumented immigrants who have resided in the US and have not committed crimes. Homan has stated that a targeted approach would be employed for arrests and deportations. When asked in the same October interview about the execution of deportations, Homan responded: “It’s not gonna be a mass sweep of neighbourhoods. It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous.” He further explained: “They’ll be targeted arrests. We’ll know who we’re going to arrest, where we’re most likely to find ’em based on numerous… investigative processes.” Homan was involved in Trump’s controversial “zero tolerance” policy, which led to the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents. The policy drew widespread criticism when children were sent to shelters while their parents faced prosecution, without provisions for their reunification. Homan has asserted that he did not author the policy memo that resulted in the separations, but he was one of three officials who signed it. He stated he signed it “hoping to save lives.” Homan indicated that he would not seek to reinstate that policy. Instead, when questioned about whether deportations could be carried out without separating families, he stated that families could be “deported together.” Homan has also suggested the revival of mass immigration arrests at workplaces, which he refers to as work-site enforcement operations, a practice discontinued by Biden in 2021. “As far as the people going to push back on deporting, what is the option?,” he said on Fox News’s Fox & Friends on Monday. He continued: “You have the right to claim asylum. You have a right to see a judge. We make that happen. But at the end of that due process if the judge says you must go home, then we have to take them home.” Homan, 62, began his career as a police officer in New York state before serving as a border patrol agent, a role he frequently references. “I was a border patrol agent. I wore the uniform,” he told Fox & Friends on Monday. He added: “I’m proud that I wore the uniform… I was the first Ice director to come up through the ranks.” Former President Barack Obama appointed him to lead Ice’s deportation branch in 2013. This period was marked by the agency conducting a record number of deportations. Homan’s work earned him the Presidential Rank Award, the highest recognition in civil service. Trump appointed Homan as acting director of Ice during his second week in office in 2017, a position he maintained until 2018. Trump later nominated him to become the agency’s permanent director, but the Senate did not act on the nomination. Homan, who currently serves as a Fox News contributor, joined the conservative Heritage Foundation as a visiting fellow and is a contributor to Project 2025, an ultra-conservative policy proposal. This proposal includes increased funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border, the creation of a more powerful border policing operation, and higher fees for immigrants. Trump has publicly distanced himself from this agenda while on the campaign trail.