By Jennie Taer and
Published Nov. 11, 2024, 5:57 p.m. ET
There’s a new czar in town.
President-elect Donald Trump’s new “border czar” Tom Homan has a message for New York City and other sanctuary jurisdictions: Nothing will stop us from deporting migrant criminals.
“If we can’t get assistance from New York City, we may have to double the number of agents we send to New York City,” he said on Fox & Friends on Monday. “Because we’re going to do the job with you or without you.”
Homan — whom Trump tasked with both securing the border and carrying out the deportation of millions of migrants who are in the US illegally — told The Post that he wants his boss to put maximum pressure on the leaders of New York and other sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with efforts to lock up and deport migrants who commit crimes in the US.
“I’m hoping the president files a lawsuit against them and withholds federal funding,” Homan said.
He said that he would rather work with local cops to identify migrants who have been arrested and take them into ICE custody.
But, if police are barred from helping the feds identify suspects, “then we’ll wait til they get out of jail, then we’ll go out into the neighborhoods and get them.”
He added: “If they’re not willing to do it then get out of the way — we’re coming.”
Homan said enforcing immigration laws like that will require a lot of manpower, “so if I have to flood agents to the sanctuary cities to get the job done then that’s what we’re gonna do.”
On Sunday, Trump appointed Homan, the former acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the first Trump administration, to the post currently held by Vice President Kamala Harris — who oversaw more than 8 million migrants entering the country illegally in the last four years.
“I’m going to be extremely successful because I’m following failure,” Homan said.
An ex-cop and former border agent from West Carthage, New York, Homan was appointed to the agency by former President Barack Obama in 2013. He famously pledged at the Republican National Convention in July that if Trump won the election he would “run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.”
‘A cop’s cop’
“No one has better ideas for strong border security than him,” said former ICE Denver chief John Fabbricatore, calling his appointment “a step in the right direction” in moving away from the disastrous policies of the previous administration.
“Having had the privilege to work under Tom Homan, I can confidently say he is a ‘cop’s cop.’ His decades of immigration operational experience and no-nonsense approach are perfectly suited for the role of Border Czar,” he said.
“Tom will enforce the law effectively and humanely. I’m confident that he’ll assemble a capable team to address the challenges at the border efficiently.”
Derek Maltz, who worked alongside Homan at their nonprofit Border911, told The Post he thinks the border czar-in-waiting will prioritize hunting down illegal immigrant “ghost criminals,” terrorists and other violent offenders.
“Tom understands this, plus he’s got very very intelligent and experienced partners that he’s worked with on these issues of immigration. He’s the perfect guy.”
Homan has made the rounds on news programs in recent weeks, calling the current border crisis “the biggest national security vulnerability this nation has seen since 9/11” on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” Monday morning.
His first order of business in his new post will be to visit the borders and get a sense of the “latest issues” agents are facing, as well as their “pain points,” he told The Post.
He’s also planning to meet directly with agents and the heads of the major immigration enforcement agencies.
“I’m not coming in and making major changes on day one as far as the agencies are concerned, but they’re going to have a whole new prioritization.”
Securing the border
The migrant crisis has grown so huge that agencies responsible for keeping the border secure have been taking agents off patrol and tasking them with “making sandwiches, changing diapers and making baby formula,” Homan said.
“When you take most border agents off the border during this humanitarian crisis, that’s when the fentanyl comes across that’s killed a quarter-million Americans. That’s when the sex trafficking increased 600%. That’s when suspected terrorists cross into this country,” he told the hosts.
Homan will also be “very engaged in creating and helping support” a border wall “system” to enhance technology and visibility for border agents to track illegal crossings, Maltz shared, chalking up his level of direct involvement to the decades he’s spent as a border enforcer.
As for naysayers’ alternatives? “What is the option? You have a right to claim asylum, to see a judge — we made that happen. But if the judge says you must go home, then we have to take them home. Because if we’re not, what the hell are we doing?” Homan said.
“If the judge’s order doesn’t mean anything, then shut down the immigration court. Take the border patrol off the border if there are no consequences for violating the laws of this country.”
Mass deportations
A favorite campaign boogeyman trotted out by left-leaning media was the threat that the Trump administration would look to conduct mass deportations of migrants.
However, Homan said he will focus on law-breakers, terror suspects and other migrants who are a threat to the community — downplaying criticism that there will be mass roundups.
“President Trump has made it clear… we’re going to prioritize public safety threats and national security threats — an there’s a lot of them,” he said. “In terms of criminal removals by ICE, it’s down 72% from the Trump administration.
Homan told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that ICE raids will be targeted, and not carried out as “mass sweeps of neighborhoods,” adding that he would bring back “necessary” workplace raids, which were halted under the Biden-Harris admin.
Workplace raids
The carrying out of such workplace raids is another controversial component of the second Trump administration’s stated border policy.
The reversal from the previous administration, Homan says, is because “most victims of sex trafficking and forced labor trafficking” are found at workplaces.
Biden’s Homeland Security Department halted ICE raids on worksites in October 2021, claiming they were used by the first Trump administration “as a tool by exploitative employers to suppress and retaliate against workers’ assertion of labor laws.”
Jon Feere, previously ICE chief of staff under the Trump administration, told The Post that businesses breaking the law by employing illegal immigrants should either clean up their acts or prepare for trouble.
“If I were a business engaged in unlawful employment practices, I would be thinking about course correction right now. I’d be thinking about automation where possible and I’d be concerned that some ICE officers and agents are going to come knocking on the door,” he said.
Kids and families
Family separation at the border is another tragic side effect of mass-scale illegal immigration, and has put hundreds of thousands of children at risk of exploitation.
“This administration has lost over 300,000 children that were smuggled into this country by criminal cartels they can’t find. We need to save these children, because some of them are in forced labor, some are in sex trafficking, some are living a life of hell every day,” Homan said on Fox News.
“We need to save these children and get them back with their families.”
Feere said Homan will need to leverage agencies beyond ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), to track down missing immigrant kids and conducting raids of worksites, calling it “an issue that needs to be addressed from multiple angles.”
As for some negative public opinion out there that’s been critical of the planned overhaul — which he said have included death threats against him and his family — Homan doesn’t give it a second thought.
“Frankly, I don’t care what people think about me, especially in the left,” Homan said when asked how he planned to handle criticism of Trump’s border policy.
“I don’t care about anybody’s opinion. When you create a crisis this big, all of these other bad things happen, that’s why you have to secure the border. I don’t care if you’re a Democrat, Republican or independent, border security is national security. We should all be on the same side of that.”
Homan said in no uncertain terms that the new border regime would not be like it’s been under Biden and Harris.
“President Trump is going to secure this border, he’s going to save American lives. We’re going to drop illegal alien crime, which is skyrocketing. Less people are going to die from fentanyl, less children will be sex trafficked, less women will be sexually assaulted on the southern border,” Homan said, speaking directly to the camera.
“The criminal cartels will be put out of business by this president.”
