Border czar Tom Homan touted the Trump administration’s achievements in addressing the illegal immigration crisis in a speech over the weekend, although he admitted that there’s still more to do. Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday, former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) chief Homan began by enumerating the damage done by former President Joe Biden and his administration.
“I worked for six presidents, starting with Ronald Reagan. Every president I ever worked for took steps to secure the border. Even Clinton and Obama took steps to secure the border because they clearly understood you can’t have national security without border security. They got it,” Homan said. He added, “Joe Biden is the first president in the history of the nation who came into office and unsecured the border on purpose.”
“For four years, we got over 10.5 million illegal aliens at our border—they released nearly 8 million into the country illegally. We had a 600% increase in sex trafficking of women and children. We had a record number of known [and] suspected terrorists and people on the terrorist watch list crossing the border,” he continued. “Think about that for a moment, what Joe Biden did to our borders to create the most significant public safety and national security vulnerability of this nation’s history,” he added.
But Homan vowed that he and President Donald Trump are “going to take care of this border.” He boasted, “In less than a month, illegal crossings are down 95%, ICE has arrested over 21,000 people in the nation.” Homan recounted, “Gotaways under President Biden, 2.2 million people crossed the border, weren’t arrested because the Border Patrol was too busy making sandwiches, changing diapers, making baby food, and making hospital runs, dealing with a humanitarian crisis.” He continued to say that the 2.2 million gotaways “crossed the border and weren’t apprehended and weren’t fingerprinted. We had about 1,800 a day in 2023. You know how many we had yesterday? Forty-eight. You’re talking about 2,000 miles of border and only 48 people escaped. But that’s 48 too many. I’m not going to be happy till that number’s zero.”
Illegal border crossings have dropped drastically since Trump returned to office. Encounters at the nation’s southern border dropped from over 124,000 in January 2024 to 29,116 last month, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Additionally, the first 11 days of Trump’s second term saw 93% fewer encounters than the 11 days before he took office. Although border crossings are down, deportation numbers have been slow to rise. According to ICE data provided to Reuters, less than 38,000 illegal immigrants have been deported in the first month of Trump’s presidency. Even the Biden administration deported a monthly average of 57,000 illegal immigrants over the course of 2024.
In response to the low deportation numbers, Trump removed acting ICE director Caleb Vitello, although it is not clear who has been chosen to replace him. Previous reports have suggested that Trump is “angry” that arrest and deportation numbers are not higher. Homan himself has expressed disappointment and dissatisfaction with low deportation statistics, pledging to increase the number of illegal immigrants ICE removes on a daily basis. Referring to low deportation numbers, he said Saturday, “For those who don’t think those numbers are enough, I don’t either.” He added that although he’s satisfied that deportations are underway, “I’m not going to be satisfied until every criminal alien gang member, every criminal alien, every Tren de Aragua is eradicated from this country and we’ll send their ass to Gitmo where they belong.”
Previously, Homan has pledged to increase daily deportation numbers. “We’ve got to do more. We’ve got to open that aperture up, which we’re going to do,” he said last month. He insisted, “And we need more deportations, a lot more deportations, and that’s what we are working on.”
Homan has noted that deportation plans face several obstacles, including a lack of funding and staffing. He announced Saturday that he is recruiting retired ICE and U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agents to return and lead deportation efforts the “old school” way. “We’re going to double the workforce, we’re going to add more targeting, we’re going to add more teams,” he promised. “What I’ve done recently, I brought a bunch of bad-ass old-school boys back,” Homan reported. He added, “I’m bringing a bunch of old school people back to show the young folks how we did it—and how we’re going to do it.”
The border czar has also shared that “sanctuary cities” have been problematic when attempting to implement deportations. “Mayor of Chicago said I wasn’t welcome in Chicago. Guess where the first place I went was? Chicago,” Homan quipped, referring to personally leading arrests and deportations in the Windy City. Trump’s Justice Department later filed a lawsuit against Chicago, Cook County, and the state of Illinois, targeting “sanctuary” policies that allow illegal immigrants to evade deportation and prohibit state and local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE. A similar lawsuit was filed against officials in New York.
In his Saturday speech, Homan issued a stern warning to another “sanctuary city,” Boston. “I’m coming to Boston and I’m bringing hell with me,” the border czar declared. He went on to blast Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox for refusing to cooperate with ICE. “I looked at the numbers this morning. I counted, I stopped counting at nine—nine child rapists that were in jail in Massachusetts. But rather than honoring an ICE detainer, released them back into the street,” Homan said of Cox’s treatment of illegal immigrants convicted of violent crimes. Directly addressing Cox, he said, “You’re not a police commissioner. Take that badge off your chest. Put it in the desk drawer. Because you became a politician, you forgot what it’s like to be a cop.” Homan added, “Guess what? The men and women of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they found those predators and they’re locked back up—and we’re going to deport them from the United States.”
Homan also addressed the importance of having a secure border and removing illegal immigrants from the country. Referring to “bad stories” in the media about the Trump administration, the border czar said, “You know, ‘Homan, you’re racist, you’re a white nationalist, you’re a mean person.’ Okay. I’ll take that. Because, you know, I’m working for the greatest president in my lifetime, and we’re going to save lives.” He continued, “Because when 95% less people are coming across the border, how many women ain’t being raped? How many Americans aren’t dying from fentanyl overdoses? How many known terrorists aren’t getting in the country? How many women and children aren’t sex trafficked in this country?” He declared, “When you have the border locked down, we’re saving lives.”
Originally published by The Washington Stand