Donald Trump announced Sunday night that Tom Homan, the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will serve as his border czar in his second administration and will be tasked with overseeing the mass deportations the president-elect has vowed to carry out.
Homan will be responsible for overseeing the southern border, northern border, and other areas related to security.
“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 Truth Social.
“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.”
Homan strictly enforced immigration policy during Trump’s first term and will continue to do so in the second. In July, Homan vowed to run the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
“Trump comes back in January, I’ll be on his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen,” he said at a panel on immigration policy in Washington, D.C. “They ain’t seen shit yet. Wait until 2025.”
The president-elect, who ran on border security for his 2024 campaign, has promised to deport millions of illegal immigrants from the U.S. to reverse the damage that Biden’s open-border policies have caused in the past nearly four years. Homan’s responsibilities include oversight of the planned mass deportations.
“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 morning in a Fox News interview. Taking the public’s concerns into account, he noted the mass deportations would be a “humane operation.”
Homan’s appointment to Trump’s White House staff does not require Senate confirmation.
The former ICE director is replacing Vice President Kamala Harris, who was placed in charge of immigration policy by President Biden. Harris visited the southern border only twice during the Biden administration to meet with immigration officials, the latest trip being in September. She last visited the border in 2021.
Trump resoundingly defeated Harris in the presidential election last week, surpassing the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency and sweeping all seven swing states. His final electoral-vote tally is 312, eclipsing both his 2016 victory and President Joe Biden’s 2020 win.
Homan is the latest person that Trump has picked to serve a high-ranking position in his second term. On Thursday, the former president announced his longtime campaign manager, Susie Wiles, will be the next White House chief of staff.