(NewsNation) — Tom Homan has been announced as the incoming Trump administration’s “border czar,” overseeing America’s border sovereignty.
President-elect Donald Trump announced the appointment via Truth Social on Sunday.
“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,” Trump wrote.
Here’s what you need to know about Homan.
Who is Tom Homan?
Homan, 62, has extensive experience in law enforcement and politics, previously serving in the Obama and Trump administrations and as Trump’s acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
A New York native, Homan began his career as a police officer in his hometown of West Carthage before moving into border enforcement.
Homan was a border patrol agent, later ascending to supervisor before former President Barack Obama appointed Homan to Executive Associate Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2013.
Obama gave Homan a Presidential Rank Award in 2015, which recognizes “extraordinary achievements by career executives in Federal service,” according to the Chief Human Capital Officers Council.
Trump previously made Homan a senior immigration official in his last administration. He served as the acting director of ICE.
What will Homan’s role be as border czar?
Trump outlined some of Homan’s responsibilities in his Truth Social post on Sunday, reflecting what one may imagine for a border czar.
They include but are “not limited to the Southern Border, the Northern Border, all Maritime, and Aviation Security,” according to the president-elect.
“Tom Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin,” Trump added.
Homan joined Fox News on Monday morning to discuss his new role, suggesting he would be a “hypocrite” if he did not accept Trump’s offer after repeatedly criticizing the Biden administration’s border policies.
“I’m honored the president asked me to come back and help solve this national security crisis, so I’m looking forward to it,” he said.
“Public safety threats and national security threats will be the priority,” Homan told Fox of his and Trump’s vision.
“Another priority, this administration has lost over 300,000 children that were smuggled into this country by criminal cartels… we need to save these children,” Homan added.
“Some of these children are in forced labor, sex trafficking, some of these children are living a life of hell every day. We need to save these children and get them back with their families.”
Homan’s view on border, deportation
Homan recently solidified his position on deportation, as he readies to follow through on Trump’s pledge for the largest deportation of migrants who entered the country illegally.
“You have a historic illegal immigration crisis where you have numbers we’ve never seen before, in the millions and millions, of illegal aliens released in this country [and] we know the vast majority will not get asylum, so they don’t qualify,” Homan told The Times.
“The ideal success is: Crime rate goes down, illegal immigration goes down, lives are saved. That’s the ideal outcome,” Homan added.
As for mass deportation, Homan rebuked the idea that the Trump administration is heavy-handed by enforcing the law upon those who break United States law by entering the country illegally.
“You have a right to claim asylum,” Homan told Fox on Monday. “You have a right to see a judge, and we make that happen. But, at the end of that due process, if a judge says ‘You have to go home,’ then we have to take them home.
“What is the option? Let them all stay? If that’s the option you want, you’re never going to fix the southern border, because you send a message to the whole world; ‘Come to the United States, enter the country illegally – which is a crime – but you still get to stay. That doesn’t work.”
