US President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday evening that he will bring back hardline immigration official Tom Homan to oversee the country’s borders in the incoming administration.
Trump has pledged to launch – on the first day of his presidency – the largest operation to deport undocumented immigrants in US history.
“I am pleased to announce that former ICE Director and border enforcement advocate, Tom Homan, will join the Trump Administration, responsible for our nation’s borders (“The Border Czar”),” Trump posted on his social network Truth Sociale.
“I have known Tom for a long time and there is no one better at policing and policing our borders.”
Homan will be responsible for “all deportation of illegal aliens back to their home country,” Trump added.
During Trump’s campaign, he repeatedly lashed out at undocumented immigrants, .
Concerns about super charging
As the U.S. government has struggled for years to manage the southern border with Mexico, Trump has amplified concerns by claiming there is an ongoing “invasion” by migrants who he says will rape and kill Americans.
In speeches at rallies, he wildly exaggerated local tensions and misled his audiences about immigration statistics and policies.
Violent crime, which spiked under Trump, has declined every year of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Trump fought to increase deportations during his 2017-2021 presidency. If you count both immigrant removals and quicker “returns” to Mexico by U.S. border officials, Biden deported more immigrants in 2023 than in any other Trump year, according to U.S. government data.
Homan, who served in the Trump administration for a year and a half during his first term as director of immigration enforcement, said in a late October interview that the extent of deportations will depend on potential agents and from the detention space.
“It all depends on what the budget is going to be,” he said.
“Operation Aurora”
Trump has vowed to crack down on migrant gangs by using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 – which allows the federal government to round up and deport aliens from enemy countries – as part of a mass deportation operation he has dubbed “Operation Aurora ”.
Aurora was the scene of a viral video showing armed Latinos rampaging through an apartment building that spurred widespread false narratives about the city being terrorized by Latino migrants.
Trump has similarly promoted the .