Trump’s Border Czar Confirms Deportations Have ‘Already Started’

Tom Homan is seen giving remarks during a law enforcement roundtable on sanctuary cities held by President Donald Trump, in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on March 20, 2018 in Washington, D.C. Photo by Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images

President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said Tuesday that U.S. immigration officials have already started carrying out deportations, targeting illegal immigrants who are deemed a threat to public safety.

Homan, a former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told Fox News on Tuesday that regarding deportation operations, “it already started” and that operations are primarily focused on “public safety threats.”

“ICE teams are out there as of today,” he said, without providing details on where. Homan then made note of leaks to the media about ICE targeting areas in Chicago and suggested that a different plan was initiated.

That includes people who are in the country illegally who have been convicted of a serious crime, he said. He said that anyone who is in the United States illegally has been put on notice.

“We got to go into the neighborhood to find” an individual deemed a public safety threat, Homan said. When immigration officials “find others” who are in the country illegally, they “will be arrested” by ICE officials, he said, suggesting that officials are targeting sanctuary cities with illegal immigrants.

Earlier this week, Homan told ABC News that his team was “reviewing any plans in Chicago because of the leak” after reports in recent days indicated the Trump administration would launch operations in the city before moving on to other major U.S. cities.

“When the president gets sworn in, ICE officers are going to have a new priority of seeking out those who are considered a public safety threat and a national security threat,” Homan said to ABC News before the inauguration.

On Day One of Trump’s administration, the president signed a number of immigration- and border-related executive orders, including ending automatic birthright citizenship, declaring an invasion at the U.S.–Mexico border, and declaring a national emergency at the border.

“All illegal entry will immediately be halted,” Trump said at the Capitol minutes after being inaugurated on Monday. “And we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.”

Legal challenges have already been filed against Trump’s order. Several Democrat-led states on Tuesday filed lawsuits challenging Trump’s executive order, arguing that it violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

The administration also ended the immigration-related use of the CPB One app and ended any already-scheduled immigration-related hearings for individuals who were using the app, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) said in a statement Monday. Concerns about the CBP One app had been raised by Trump, Vice President JD Vance, tech billionaire Elon Musk, and other Republicans during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Another order issued by Trump was to designate Mexican drug cartels and Latin American gangs like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua as foreign terrorist organizations.

As Trump signed those orders, he reiterated that he favors legal immigration and acknowledged an imminent legal challenge to overturning birthright citizenship. He called automatic citizenship “just ridiculous” and that he believes he is on “good [legal] ground” to change it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.