Trump announces Tom Homan, his former acting ICE director, will be administration’s ‘border czar’

By Kaitlan Collins and Colin McCullough, CNN

(CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump announced Sunday night that Tom Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in his last administration, will be in charge of the nation’s borders.

“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 said in a post on Truth Social late Sunday.

The president-elect added that there’s “nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders” and that Homan “will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin.”

The former acting ICE director was a contributor to Project 2025, the sweeping conservative blueprint for the next Republican president, which Trump distanced himself from during his campaign.

CNN reported earlier Sunday that Trump was expected to tap Homan to serve in a czar-like role.

CNN has reached out to Homan for comment. On Fox News Monday morning, Homan detailed some of his plans to handle illegal immigration.

“Worksite operations have to happen,” Homan said. “Where do we find most victims of sex trafficking and forced labor trafficking? At work sites.”

Homan expressed disdain toward sanctuary cities, which are jurisdictions that have policies in place designed to limit cooperation with or involvement in federal immigration enforcement actions. He said that he hopes that local police in these cities will cooperate with the incoming administration but noted Trump’s history of using the Department of Justice to enforce his immigration policies.

“Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals,” Homan said on Fox News.

Immigration was a cornerstone of Trump’s 2024 campaign, and he repeatedly vowed to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

In a recent interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Homan argued that “families could be deported together” when asked about Trump’s pledge to carry about mass deportations immediately upon entering office. He also argued that that effort would be targeted, though exact plans for how it would be carried out — and how much it would cost — remain to be seen.

“It’s not going to be a mass sweep of neighborhoods. It’s not going to be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous,” Homan told CBS.

In a sign of his influence in Trump’s orbit, Homan spoke at the Republican National Convention in July.

“I got a message to the millions of illegal aliens that Joe Biden has released into our country in violation of federal law: You better start packing now,” Homan said from the stage in Milwaukee. “You’re damn right.”

A career law enforcement officer, Homan served as the public face of the first Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to step up immigration enforcement before retiring in 2018. He served temporarily in the role from the beginning of the Trump administration, despite never being confirmed by the Senate, because he had already been the deputy in line for the job.

Homan often took the microphone — including at White House briefings — to defend his agents’ arrests of undocumented immigrants and to call for more robust enforcement. At one point, he told Congress that undocumented immigrants “should be afraid.”

Homan also oversaw an immigration system that placed a record number of immigrant children in US custody. In September 2017, Homan said at a public event that his agency would arrest undocumented people who came forward to care for the children, something previous administrations avoided.

“You cannot hide in the shadows,” Homan said at a Washington border security event, adding that parents should be “shoulder-to-shoulder” with their children in court. “We’re going to put the parents in proceedings, immigration proceedings, at a minimum. … Is that cruel? I don’t think so.”

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Jack Forrest, Michelle Shen, Catherine E. Shoichet, Tal Kopan and Eli Watkins contributed to this report.

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