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Tom Homan

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Tom Homan
Official portrait, 2017
Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Acting
January 30, 2017 – June 28, 2018
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byDaniel Ragsdale (acting)
Succeeded byRonald Vitiello (acting)
Personal details
BornNovember 28, 1961 (age 63)
West Carthage, New York, U.S.
EducationJefferson Community College (AS)
SUNY College of Technology at Utica–Rome (BAS)
AwardsPresidential Rank Award (2015)

Thomas Douglas Homan[1] is an American former police officer, immigration official, and political commentator who served during the Obama administration and the first Trump administration, and has been appointed to serve in the second Trump administration. He served as acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from January 30, 2017, to June 29, 2018.

Homan advocates deportation of illegal immigrants and opposes sanctuary city policies. Within the government, he was among the most strident proponents of separating children from their parents as a means of deterring illegal entry into the country. After 2018, he began contributing to Fox News as a commentator. Homan joined the Heritage Foundation in February 2022 and became a contributor to its Project 2025.

In November 2024, Trump announced that Homan will serve as "border czar" during his second presidency.

Early life and career

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Homan was born in West Carthage, New York into a Roman Catholic family.[2] He holds an associate degree in criminal justice from Jefferson Community College and a bachelor's degree from SUNY Polytechnic Institute.[3]

He was then a police officer in West Carthage.[4]

Federal government career

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Homan joined what was then called the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1984, serving as a Border Patrol agent, investigator, and supervisor.[4]

He was appointed by President Barack Obama as Immigration and Customs Enforcement's executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations in 2013.[4]

By 2014 under the Obama administration, Homan had begun to argue that separating children from their caregivers would be an effective means of discouraging illegal border crossings. The journalist Caitlin Dickerson describes him as the "intellectual father" of the policy, which he outlined years before it was adopted by the Trump administration. “Most parents don’t want to be separated,” Homan told Dickerson. He argued that this fact made separation an effective tool for immigration enforcement: “I’d be lying to you if I didn’t think that would have an effect.”[5]

In 2015, President Obama gave him a Presidential Rank Award as a Distinguished Executive. A Washington Post article at the time stated, "Thomas Homan deports people. And he's really good at it."[6][7]

Acting director of ICE (2017–2018)

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On January 30, 2017, President Donald Trump demoted acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Daniel Ragsdale to deputy director, a position he already held, and appointed Homan as acting director.[8][9][10][11][12]

In May 2017, Homan announced ICE had arrested 41,319 people between Inauguration Day and the end of April, a 38% increase from the same period the year before.[13] The following month, Homan said that illegal immigrants "should be afraid."[14] He has denied saying "aliens commit more crimes than US citizens".[15]

On November 14, 2017, Trump nominated Homan for ICE Director.[16]

In February 2018, Homan said that politicians who support sanctuary city policies should be charged with crimes.[17] In April 2018, he and Kevin McAleenan formally advised Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen to implement the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy on immigration, including the prosecution of parents and the separation of children from their families. Homan participated in the May 2018 press conference announcing that the policy was going into effect.[5] On June 5, 2018, Homan appeared for a discussion with the policy director of the Center for Immigration Studies, where he defended the separation of children from their parents.[18][19]

Homan retired from his position as acting ICE director in June 2018.[20][21]

Post-government (2018–2024)

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After 2018, Homan began contributing to Fox News as a commentator.[22]

In July 2019, Homan testified before the House Oversight Committee regarding the Trump administration's family separation policy.[23] He declared that a third of all women who cross the border get raped, and that turning a blind eye to the border would result in an increase of child mortality. He also recounted his experiences which motivated him to become tough on immigration, "So I get there, I’m walking around in the back of a tractor-trailer with 19 dead aliens at my feet, including a five-year-old little boy who suffocated in the back of that tractor-trailer. And I had a five year old at the time. I didn’t sleep for three days."[24]

On February 25, 2022, Homan was slated as a keynote speaker for the America First Political Action Conference held near Orlando, Florida, but left before the conference began after he learned that the founder Nick Fuentes had praised Russian president Vladimir Putin for the invasion of Ukraine.[25]

Homan joined the Heritage Foundation in February 2022 and became a contributor to its Project 2025, which proposes mass arrests, detentions and deportations of illegal immigrants across the nation, though his name is not listed on any specific chapter or policy ideas.[26][27][28]

In November 2022, Homan launched a border-focused project called "Defend the Border and Save Lives" in collaboration with the United West, an Southern Poverty Law Center-designated anti-Muslim hate group. The project, which shares staff and an address with the United West, held a fundraising event at Mar-a-Lago that month, and has been criticized for promoting inflammatory rhetoric about immigration and Muslims.[29]

At a July 2024 National Conservatism Conference meeting, Homan said if "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. They ain't seen shit yet. Wait until 2025."[30] On July 17 at the 2024 Republican National Convention, Homan called Biden's immigration policies "national suicide" and told "millions of illegal aliens" to "start packing". Homan said that drug cartels would be designated as terrorist organizations and that Trump would "wipe them off the face of the earth".[31][32]

Second Trump administration (2025–)

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Main article: Planned mass deportation of illegal immigrants under the second presidency of Donald Trump

President-elect Trump announced on November 10, 2024, that Homan will be joining the incoming administration as the "border czar" position,[33][34] writing that "Homan will be in charge of all deportation of illegal aliens back to their country of origin."[35] Trump plans on using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in efforts to deport illegal aliens.[36]

See also

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Notes

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References

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  1. ^ Steinbuch, Yaron (June 14, 2019). "Trump names former ICE chief Thomas Homan as 'border czar'". New York Post.
  2. ^ McDonald, Matthew (November 19, 2024). "Border Czar Tom Homan: Faith and Policy at a Crossroads". National Catholic Register. Retrieved November 22, 2024.
  3. ^ "Trump appoints West Carthage native as ICE director". Watertown Daily Times. December 4, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c Nixon, Ron (January 31, 2017). "Trump Names Thomas Homan as Acting Immigration Enforcement Chief". The New York Times. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  5. ^ a b Dickerson, Caitlin (August 7, 2022). "An American Catastrophe". The Atlantic. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  6. ^ "Meet the man the White House has honored for deporting illegal immigrants". The Washington Post. April 25, 2016. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  7. ^ "5 things to know about ICE Director Thomas Homan". ABC 10. March 28, 2017. Retrieved November 11, 2024.
  8. ^ Berman, Mark; Zapotosky, Matt (January 30, 2017). "Trump appoints new Immigration and Customs Enforcement director noted for his work deporting illegal immigrants". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  9. ^ Chamberlain, Samuel (January 31, 2017). "Trump Names Thomas Homan Acting Director of ICE". Fox News. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  10. ^ Lavender, Paige (January 30, 2017). "Trump Fires ICE Director Daniel Ragsdale, Appoints Thomas Homan". The Huffington Post. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  11. ^ "Statement from Secretary Kelly on the President's Appointment of Thomas D. Homan as Acting ICE Director". Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  12. ^ Lichtblau, Eric; Apuzzo, Matt; Landler, Mark (January 30, 2017). "Trump Fires Acting Attorney General". The New York Times. Retrieved January 31, 2017. The decision by the acting attorney general is a remarkable rebuke by a government official to a sitting president that recalls the dramatic "Saturday Night Massacre" in 1973, when President Richard M. Nixon fired his attorney general and deputy attorney general for refusing to dismiss the special prosecutor in the Watergate case. That case prompted a constitutional crisis that ended when Robert Bork, the solicitor general, acceded to Mr. Nixon's order and fired Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor.
  13. ^ Dickerson, Caitlin (May 18, 2017). "Immigration Arrests Rise Sharply as a Trump Mandate Is Carried Out". The New York Times. p. A22. Retrieved May 19, 2017.
  14. ^ Kopan, Tal (June 16, 2017). "ICE Director: Undocumented Immigrants 'Should be Afraid'". CNN. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  15. ^ Mark, Michelle (June 28, 2017). "ICE Director Appears to Break with One of Trump's Key Beliefs on Immigrants and Crime". Business Insider. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  16. ^ "One Nomination Sent to the Senate". whitehouse.gov. November 14, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2017 – via National Archives.
  17. ^ Conradis, Brandon (January 2, 2018). "Trump ICE pick: Politicians who run sanctuary cities should be charged with crimes". The Hill. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
  18. ^ Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Defends Separating Families at the Border, Time Magazine, Maya Rhodan, June 5, 2018. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
  19. ^ Rod, Marc (June 19, 2018). "Acting ICE director on whether 'zero tolerance' policy is humane: 'It's the law'". CNN. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  20. ^ The Hill. "Acting ICE director to retire". Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  21. ^ "Statement from Secretary Kelly on the President's Appointment of Thomas D. Homan as Acting ICE Director". The US Department of Homeland Security. January 30, 2017. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  22. ^ Blitzer, Jonathan (June 24, 2019). "ICE Agents Are Losing Patience with Trump's Chaotic Immigration Policy". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved July 3, 2019.
  23. ^ Kaufman, Elle (July 12, 2019). "Former ICE official trades heated words with lawmakers at hearing". CNN. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  24. ^ "Panel Transcript: The Border Crisis". Retrieved November 20, 2024.
  25. ^ Mathias, Christopher (March 3, 2022). "White Nationalists with lanyards: Orlando showed the ugly future of the Republican Party". HuffPost. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
  26. ^ "Heritage Foundation Welcomes Tom Homan, Former Acting ICE Director, as New Visiting Fellow". Heritage Foundation. February 14, 2022.
  27. ^ Savage, Charlie; Haberman, Maggie; Swan, Jonathan (November 11, 2023). "Sweeping Raids, Giant Camps and Mass Deportations: Inside Trump's 2025 Immigration Plans". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on July 5, 2024.
  28. ^ Leingang, Rachel (December 9, 2024). "Project 2025: the Trump picks with ties to ultra-rightwing policy manifesto". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
  29. ^ "Former ICE Chief Taps Anti-Muslim Hate Group To Help Run Border-Focused Project". Southern Poverty Law Center. November 3, 2022. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  30. ^ Weigel, David (July 9, 2024). "Trump's 'national conservative' allies plot a revenge administration". Semafor.
  31. ^ Mathias, Christopher (July 18, 2024). "He Went To A White Supremacist Conference. He Just Spoke At The RNC". HuffPost. Archived from the original on July 18, 2024. Retrieved July 18, 2024.
  32. ^ "What to know about Tom Homan, the former ICE head returning as Trump's 'border czar'". NPR. November 11, 2024.
  33. ^ Collins, Kaitlan (November 10, 2024). "Trump announces Tom Homan, his former acting ICE director, will be administration's 'border czar'". CNN. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
  34. ^ Samuels, Brett (November 11, 2024). "Trump names former ICE director Homan 'border czar'". The Hill.
  35. ^ Ives, Mike (November 11, 2024). "Trump Names Thomas Homan 'Border Czar' With a Wide Portfolio". The New York Times.
  36. ^ "Trump rehires Tom Homan, father of family separation policy, as border czar". The Independent. November 11, 2024. Retrieved November 11, 2024.
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Media related to Thomas D. Homan at Wikimedia Commons

Government offices
Preceded byas acting director Acting Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
2017–2018 		Succeeded byas acting director
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