Fort Worth, Texas — President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming ‘border czar,’ Tom Homan is ready to start securing the border "on Day 1" of the new administration.
"It’s going to be shock and awe compared to the present administration,” Homan shared in an exclusive interview on Dr. Phil’s Merit TV. "There are three rails that President-elect Trump is concentrating on when it comes to immigration. Number one, securing the border. We’ll do that relatively quickly because we did it under the first Trump administration, so we’ve got the plans in place."
The former head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be responsible for the southern and northern borders, maritime and aviation security and is responsible for deportation efforts — a central part of Trump's agenda.
"We’ve got to do a deportation operation for those in the country illegally," said Homan, who is a former border patrol agent who worked his way up to ICE director in 2017 and 2018. His decades of experience at the U.S. border fuel his passion for protecting it.
Homan’s focus for the well-targeted, planned operation are criminals, especially public safety threats and national security threats.
“I know at least eight million were released in this country by this administration," said Homan. "You can demand due process. You can demand the right to claim asylum. You can demand the right to see a judge. But due process doesn’t mean anything if the decision of the court isn’t carried out. So that must happen. Because if we don’t, what’s the option? Let ‘em stay? You just sent a message to the entire world. You come to our border, enter the country illegally, which is a crime, make a fraudulent claim to asylum, and when you lose your case, you still don't have to go home? That sends a message to the whole world, which means more migrants will die, more Americans will die from an unsecured border. That's when the fentanyl comes across... we have to do this."
No stranger to controversy, during a “60 Minutes” interview before the election, Homan said, “families can be deported together,” when asked if there was a way to carry out deportations without separating families.
"I hear all the negative comments on mass deportation but, look at the end of four years of mass, historic illegal deportation – with millions of people crossing the border illegally – based on court data from the last 10 years, nine out of 10 people who claim asylum at our borders will end up with an order removal from a federal judge," said Homan. "Those orders must be executed, that’s what the law requires."
And as for finding illegal, criminal migrants, Homan has a plan for that, too.
"There are systems we have in place. ICE is very good at this. We're gonna concentrate on criminals. You and I have a footprint. We have a digital footprint. You own a home, you have a car, probably got a mortgage, you pay utility bills, you have footprint. We use that footprint to find people."
Homan plans to take the same steadfast approach for finding 300,000 missing children, who he said were trafficked into the United States.
"They were released to sponsors who weren't properly vetted. We need to find them and get them back to their families," he said.
According to U.S. Customs & Border Protection, under the current administration, key border-related numbers spiked to nearly 9 million migrant encounters along the southwest border since Biden took office. And more than 2 million more border-crossers were reportedly detected but never captured, and more than 300 migrants stopped at the border with names matching known or suspected terrorists on a government watchlist.
"President Trump and myself have been very clear. Right out of the gate, we're prioritizing public safety threats and national security threats because they pose the biggest danger to this country," said Homan.