Incoming Trump Border Czar Homan Promises Mass Deportation Ahead in Visit to Texas
(Bloomberg) -- Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s pick for border czar, vowed to unleash a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration and escalate enforcement along the southern border with Mexico.
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Speaking on Fox News ahead of a visit to the frontier with Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday, Homan pledged to work closely with the state to ramp up security measures and said Trump will use sweeping executive actions to tighten US immigration policy.
“We are sending a strong message to the rest of the world, if you cross this border illegally, you are going to be detained,” Homan said on Fox.
The comments set the stage for an aggressive policy pivot as Trump prepares to reenter the White House with a promise to undertake mass deportations, though the details are still unclear and any program will likely require substantial funding from Congress and the cooperation of countries to accept returning migrants. Abbott spent billions of state money beefing up border security over the past few years amid what he called an “invasion” of migrants, many of them asylum seekers, crossing over the border. He implemented a busing program that sent many of those released into the US on one-way trips to cities including New York and Chicago.
On Monday, Trump signaled plans to link his tariff policy to immigration enforcement, citing concerns over crime and fentanyl trafficking as key justifications.
Homan, speaking at an event with National Guard soldiers and Department of Public Safety troops in Eagle Pass, Texas, reiterated plans for a massive roundup of people in the country illegally. He warned governors and mayors that they’ll need to cooperate with federal officials seeking to carry out deportations.
“There is going to be a mass deportation,” Homan said. “Game on. Time to get this done.”
Homan praised Abbott’s border policies, which include constructing barriers and arresting individuals who cross the border illegally. Homan emphasized that a Trump administration would partner with Texas, rather than pursue lawsuits against its efforts to secure the border — a critique of the Biden administration’s legal challenges to Abbott’s measures.
“We’re not waiting until Jan. 20. We’re already planning to lock down the state of Texas and ensure 100% border security across the Southwest,” Homan said on Fox.
The approach may include reinstating third-country agreements, reviving the “Remain in Mexico” policy, and halting catch-and-release practices. Homan added that executive orders would play a central role in bypassing congressional gridlock on asylum laws.
Texas officials have signaled the state might pull back on its own border efforts as the federal government steps up enforcement under Trump. The program has cost $11 billion, and Abbott’s office had asked lawmakers for another $2.9 billion in the next legislative sessions, according to the Texas Tribune.
The Texas General Land Office perviously offered Trump 1,400 acres of land near the border in Rio Grande City to build deportation facilities. The agency said Tuesday that it will seek to identify other plots that the federal government can use to facilitate deportations.
But encounters with migrants at the southern border have plummeted since President Joe Biden’s executive order in June severely limited options for asylum. Since that change, encounters between ports of entry are down 55%, while the number of individuals released into the US ahead of immigration court hearings has fallen by two-thirds, according to US Customs and Border Protection data.
Homan became the public face of the “zero tolerance” immigration policies during Trump’s first term in office. These initiatives broke with the practice of keeping families together during detentions and deportations and left thousands of undocumented migrant children separated from family members, drawing widespread backlash. Homan had also overseen deportations for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement under former President Barack Obama.
Immigration was a top issue for voters in the 2024 election, coming in second only behind the economy among importance for swing-state voters, according to polls conducted by Bloomberg News and Morning Consult. Net migration surged during the Biden administration, reaching 2.6 million in 2022 and 3.3 million in 2023, up from an average of 900,000 people per year from 2010 to 2019, according to figures from the Congressional Budget Office.
(Updates to add Texas General Land Office’s statement in 12th paragraph)
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