Donald Trump announced late Sunday that his former ICE director Tom Homan would serve as ‘border czar’ to oversee the largest deportation of immigrants in US history.
The president elect, 78, said on Truth Social that Homan would oversee the country’s borders in the incoming administration just days after his landslide victory against Vice President Kamala Harris.
‘I am pleased to announce that the Former ICE Director, and stalwart on Border Control, Tom Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration, in charge of our Nation’s Borders (“The Border Czar”),’ Trump posted on his social network Truth Social.
‘I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders.’
It comes after Homan said that Trump will use the US Army to round up and deport ‘the worst of the worst’ illegal migrants in an unparalleled crackdown.
On Monday, meanwhile, word broke that Trump was bringing back adviser Stephen Miller – who is credited with devising the mass deportation plan – to serve as his deputy chief of staff for policy zeroing in on the unprecedented border crackdown.
Homan said all of the estimated 20 million people residing in the US illegally would be targeted by the campaign, noting: ‘Bottom line: if you come to the country illegally, you’re not off the table.’
Homan, who was head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during Trump’s first stint in the White House, said he would revive the president elect’s ‘remain in Mexico’ program, in which Mexicans would have their asylum applications processed on their side of the border.
He also promised to close the southern border and build a wall – another flagship Trump pledge.
But the former immigration chief dismissed any suggestion that concentration camps could be used to hold migrants rounded up in the deportation program.
Instead he said he would explore possible arrangements for asylum seekers to be processed in third countries – in an echo of the Rwanda scheme previously touted under Britain before being ditched by Prime MInister Keir Starmer’s Labour government.
Newly built holding centers could be built in the US alongside a larger role for the military in transporting refugees, the Times reported.
‘It’s going to be a lot different to what the liberal media is saying it’s going to be’, Mr Homan said.
Trump said Homan will be in charge of ‘all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin.’
Homan was asked during an interview on 60 Minutes last month whether large scale deportation could take place without separating families.
‘Of course there is. Families can be deported together,’ he said bluntly.
‘I hear a lot of people say, “The talk of a mass deportation is racist. It’s threatening to the immigrant community,”‘ he said, while adding it should only ‘be threatening to the illegal immigrant community.’
Homan appeared at the Republican National Convention in July, telling supporters: ‘I got a message to the millions of illegal immigrants that Joe Biden’s released in our country: You better start packing now.’
Homan is expected to be part of the White House staff and would not be subject to Senate confirmation as a member of Trump’s cabinet.
The move by Trump comes after he announced that Susie Wiles would be his chief of staff in the White House. The ‘Ice Baby’ – as she has been nicknamed – will be the first female chief of staff in U.S. history.
The 67-year-old ran the campaign that propelled him to an historic election win over Harris. Wiles ran his race from behind the scenes and is one of the most feared and effective political operatives in the nation.
Also on Sunday night, Trump offered Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik the job of US ambassador to the United Nations.
The House Republican and ally of the president accepted the UN gig after it was offered on Sunday, according to The New York Post.
‘I am honored to nominate Chairwoman Elise Stefanik to serve in my Cabinet as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter,’ Trump told the newspaper.
The move to pick Stefanik appeared to be a snub to former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who did not appear on the campaign trail for him despite repeatedly claiming she was ‘on standby’.
Stefanik had appeared at Trump’s now infamous rally inside Madison Square Garden last month as the race for the White House intensified.
The New York representative accepted the role previously held by Haley – who had ran against Trump in the Republican primaries.
‘I am truly honored to earn President Trump’s nomination to serve in his Cabinet as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations,’ Stefanik told The Post.
Trump has vowed to tackle migrant gangs using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 – which allows the federal government to round up and deport foreigners belonging to enemy countries – as part of a mass deportation drive he christened ‘Operation Aurora.’
Aurora was the scene of a viral video showing armed Latinos rampaging through an apartment block that spurred sweeping, false narratives about the town being terrorized by Latin American migrants.
Trump has similarly promoted the fictitious story that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating residents’ pets.