Border czar Tom Homan voiced his support for President Donald Trump’s travel ban on 12 countries, which went into effect Monday.
The United States has excluded travelers from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Trump also provided detailed reasons for banning each country.
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“The travel ban is exactly what he should be doing,” Homan said Monday of Trump on Fox News’s Fox & Friends. “The countries that are being targeted in this do not do proper vetting before they issue visas to come to this country. This is about protecting America. We spent four years, with over 2 million known got-aways. And how many came from a country that sponsors terrorism, we don’t know. President Trump is taking every step possible to protect this nation from a terrorist attack and from other criminal activity.”
Homan’s comments followed a firebomb attack over a week ago in Boulder, Colorado, that injured 12 people. The attack happened on Shavuot, a Jewish holiday celebrated by readings of the Torah. Victims were participating in a Run for Their Lives event, a group that organizes short runs and walks to bring attention to the hostages held by Hamas.
The suspect in the attack, Egyptian national Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was charged with a federal hate crime and is facing deportation along with his wife and their five children. Egypt is notably not on the travel ban list.
Trump’s first administration won the lengthy legal battle that followed his 2017 travel ban. At the time, every country he tried to ban travel from was majority Muslim, causing the move to be labeled a “Muslim ban.” This time, eight of the 12 countries he banned are majority Muslim.
Meanwhile, another man will likely be deported due to criminal activity. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is facing two federal criminal counts for allegedly transporting illegal immigrants in the U.S. Homan described the charges as “real serious.”
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“We’ll put him in prison and then he’ll be deported back to his homeland,” Homan said of Abrego Garcia.
Homan supported Abrego Garcia’s initial deportation despite Abrego Garcia having a “withholding of removal” status. Homan suggested that Abrego Garcia’s alleged ties to the MS-13 gang trumped any status he was granted.