Tough-talking Tom Homan is back with a mission to fix the border disaster that defined the Biden administration.
Homan, who was the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration, will be Trump’s “border czar,” a role filled in the Biden era by Vice President Kamala Harris.
Homan has said that if he came back to Washington, he would “run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen,” according to the New York Post.
Trump announced Homan’s role in his administration in a post on Truth Social.
“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’), including, but not limited to, the Southern Border, the Northern Border, all Maritime, and Aviation Security,” Trump posted.
“I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders. Likewise, Tom Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin. Congratulations to Tom. I have no doubt he will do a fantastic, and long awaited for, job,” Trump wrote.
In a Monday interview, Homan said he can’t wait to get to work.
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“I’ve been on this network four years complaining about what this administration did to this border. I’ve been yelling and screaming about it and telling them what they need to do to fix it. So when the president asked me, ‘Would you come back to fix it?’ Of course. I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t. I’m honored the president asked me to come back and help solve this national security crisis, so I’m looking forward to it,” Homan said on “Fox & Friends” Monday.
“I think the calling is clear,” he said.
“I’ve got to go back and help because every morning I get up and every morning I’m pissed off with what this administration did to the most secure border in my lifetime, so I’m going to go back and do what I can to fix it,” he said.
“Frankly, I don’t care what people think about me, especially on the left,” he said.
Homan said in his return to protecting the border he knows what needs to be done.
“I know exactly what I’m doing, and this is the second time I’ve come out of retirement for this president, because it matters. I was a Border Patrol agent, I wore that uniform, and I’m proud that I wore that uniform. I was an ICE agent. I was the first ICE director that came up through the ranks, so the 20,000 men and women that worked for me, I didn’t ask them to do anything I wouldn’t do myself because I was one of them,” he said.
Homan said that the change from President Joe Biden to Trump has triggered a level of enthusiasm and excitement from former agents who want to do something to help.
“Thousands of retired Border Patrol agents, retired military [have called] that want to come in and volunteer to help this president secure the border and do this deportation operation,” Homan said.
Homan said not all messages were positive, saying death threats come with the job.
“That’s something we’re going to deal with. They’re not going to bully me away. They’re not going to shut me up. They’re not going to make me go away. This is the biggest national security vulnerability this nation has seen since 9/11. We have to fix it,” he said.
“I’ve been clear. President Trump’s been clear,” Homan said, speaking of deportations. “Public safety threats and national security threats will be the priority, because they have to be.”
Homan had a message for Democratic governors who have vowed to fight Trump.
“If you’re not going to help us, get the hell out of the way,” he said.
“If we can’t get assistance from New York City, and I may have, we may have to double the number of agents we send in New York City, because we’re going to do the job. We’re going to do the job without you or with you,” he said.
“But it’s much easier to arrest a bad guy, like I just said. We’re concentrating on public safety threats to humans and national security threats. It’s much easier to arrest a bad guy in the jail. Give us access to Rikers Jail that we’ve been kicked out of. Let us get the bad guy in jail. It’s safer for the alien. It’s safer for the officer. It’s safer for the community,” he said.
