By Kaitlan Collins, CNN
Updated 10:50 PM EST, Sun November 10, 2024
What we know about ex-ICE acting chief that Trump wants in charge of immigration
Donald Trump is expected to announce in the coming days that he’s bringing back Tom Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in his last administration.
Homan is expected to serve in a czar-like role in Trump’s second administration, though the details are still being finalized, sources familiar with the plan told CNN. 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.
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CNN has reached out to Homan for comment.
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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.
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“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.
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Homan often took the microphone — including at White House briefings — to defend his agents’ arrests of undocumented immigrants, to call for more robust enforcement and to attack “sanctuary city” policies. 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.”
Tal Kopan, Eli Watkins, Catherine E. Shoichet and Jack Forrest contributed to this report.
