President-elect Donald Trump plans to make good on his campaign promise to secure the border—and deport a vast number of illegal immigrants—when he assumes office on Jan. 20, 2025
To accomplish this, he’s chosen Tom Homan, former director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as his “border czar.” The position requires no Senate confirmation.
“I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our borders,” the president-elect said.
But who is Tom Homan?
A native of West Carthage, New York, and a graduate of the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute in Marcy, Homan spent 20 years as a special agent for the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Homan went on to lead Enforcement and Removal Operations under President Barack Obama; Trump later appointed him as acting director.
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In 2015, Homan received the Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Service, the nation’s highest civil service award.
Homan was also named the National Law Enforcement Leader of the Year by The Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association Foundation in 2018.
He also implemented the controversial policy of separating children from their parents while they were detained, drawing accusations of racism from Democrat lawmakers.
“How can you possibly allow this to happen under your watch? Is it because these children don’t look like children that are around you?” Rep. Jesus García (D-Ill.) asked during a July 2019 hearing of the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
Homan fired back, and related holding the body of a small boy who had suffocated along with 18 others while being smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border.
“What I’ve been trying to do my 34 years serving my nation is to save lives,” he said. “So for you to sit there and insult my integrity and my love for my country and for children, that’s why this whole thing needs to be fixed. And you’re a member of Congress—fix it!”
Trump’s Department of Homeland Security also defended the policy—which began under the Obama administration—as a way to defend child victims of human trafficking.
He later would sign an executive order in June 2018 ending that policy.
Homan was nominated to lead ICE in 2017, but chose to retire in June 2018 before being confirmed by the Senate. In June 2019, Trump announced Homan would return to his administration to serve in the informally titled position of “border czar.”
“He’s going to be very much involved with the border,” Trump said at the time. “That’s what he really wants to be involved with.”
Homan decided not to return, instead becoming a Fox News contributor and a visiting fellow with The Heritage Foundation.
But this time, he says he has agreed to return.
“I’ve got to go back and help because every morning I get up; every morning I’m [expletive] off about what this [Biden] administration did to the most secure border in my lifetime,” he said during a Nov. 11 interview with Fox and Friends.
So I’m going to go back and do what I can to fix it,”
—Samantha Flom, Charlotte Cuthbertson, Stacy Robinson
TRUMP EYES BORDER CRISIS ACTION ON DAY 1
President-elect Donald Trump is set to assume office on Jan. 20, 2025, becoming the only president to serve nonconsecutive terms since Grover Cleveland in 1893.
Trump joked that he was ready to begin signing executive orders the first day, saying “I may even have a very tiny little desk put on the 20th stair” of the U.S. Capitol.
Last time he was in office, Trump was less aggressive, only signing one order related to the Affordable Care Act his first day.
In contrast, President Joe Biden signed nine orders his first day, including an order to reverse a Trump executive order related to the border and immigration. What can we expect from Trump on day one?
Trump has said the border crisis will be tackled first.
“Day one, my act one will be to close that border,” he said earlier this year. He reiterated that pledge the day before the election, while in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
“On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program ... in the history of our country,” he said. “I will rescue every city and town that has been invaded ... and we will put the vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail.”
He also said he plans to waste no time addressing America’s economy and energy production woes. “We will frack, frack, frack, and drill, baby, drill,” he said repeatedly on the campaign trail.
Trump indicated plans to sign an order “directing every federal agency to immediately remove every single burdensome regulation driving up the cost of goods.”
That order will be accompanied by a new cabinet position focused on reducing the cost of living.
It is likely that Trump will try to make good on his “no taxes on tips,” social security, and overtime promises, piggybacking on legislation introduced by GOP lawmakers in June.
The former president has been critical of certain modern agendas directed at children, and is expected to take action immediately.
“On day one, I will sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing Critical Race Theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children,” he said in a 2023 video posted on X.
Biden’s electric-vehicle mandate, which aims to see half of all new vehicles hybrid or fully-powered by electricity 2030, will almost certainly get the ax.
The president-elect will also take aim at censorship with “an executive order banning any federal department or agency from colluding with any organization, business, or person, to censor, limit, categorize, or impede the lawful speech of American citizens.”
Finally, Trump will almost certainly reissue his 2020 executive order intended to make it easier to fire certain government employees that would normally retain their position despite a change of presidential administration.
—Janice Hisle, Stacy Robinson
BOOKMARKS
A blanket pardon for Jan. 6 protestors is expected from Trump, according to lawyer John Pierce, who has represented over 50 clients charged with breaching the Capitol. More than 1,500 people have been charged in connection with the protests, but Pierce referred to the cases as “largely, if not entirely, political.”
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) has withdrawn his name from the pool of candidates to be Trump’s attorney general, saying he intends to be a “champion” in the Senate. The incoming Trump administration has been tight-lipped about who is actually under consideration for the role.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump did not speak to each other in the days following the U.S. election, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says. The denial comes after a report by The Washington Post stating that the two leaders were discussing a way to end the war in Ukraine.
Proposition 6, which would have amended the California Constitution to ban forced labor in prisons, has been rejected by voters in that state. Gov. Gavin Newsom noted that a similar measure, blocked by the state Senate in 2022, would have raised taxes by paying prisoners minimum wage.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has called for an investigation as to whether FEMA employees were told to avoid homes of Trump supporters while disbursing aid following Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis previously called for a similar investigation following reports that 20 homes had been avoided by FEMA for displaying Trump signs.
