The incoming Trump administration’s “border czar” Tom Homan has announced that U.S. immigration officials will resume the controversial policy of holding families with children in detention centers as part of deporting illegal immigrants. .
Homan is considered the “architect” of the widely criticized family separation policy applied to undocumented immigrants during the first Trump administration, when authorities separated parents of U.S. citizen children because they were born in the United States. He said he would not hesitate to deport them.
It will be up to parents to decide whether to leave the country as a whole or to leave their children in the United States and separate the family.
“Here’s the problem,” Homan said in an interview with The Washington Post. “You knew you were in the country illegally and you chose to have a child. So you put your family in that position.”
He said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials would house parents with children in soft-sided tent structures similar to those used to handle migrant surges at the U.S. southern border. said.
“We need to build a family facility,” Homan said. “The number of beds we need depends on what the data says.”
The Biden administration ended family detention in 2021 and closed three facilities operated by Ice with about 3,000 beds. The closures followed criticism from immigration advocates and pediatricians who warned that such conditions were harmful to children.
Homan’s vow to return is the clearest signal yet of how President-elect Donald Trump intends to follow through on his repeated pledge to deport an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. .
He said the Trump administration’s policy would be to deport families en masse, but acknowledged that the government does not have the legal authority to deport children born in the United States, so it is unclear whether to separate families. The blame lies with immigrant parents.
He added: “We need to show the American people that we can do this, and it’s not inhumane. We cannot lose the trust of the American people.”
Homan was credited with being the architect of Trump’s unique “zero tolerance” policy on immigration when he served as acting director of Ice during Trump’s first term as president, when 4,000 children crossed the southern border into the United States. Separated from parents.
Homan told the Post that he would not commit to a target number of deportations until he knew what resources were available to expand Ice’s capacity, adding, “I’m prepared to be disappointed.” ” he added.
Get the most important US headlines and highlights sent straight to your email every morning
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may include information about charities, online advertising, and content sponsored by external parties. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and are subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
After newsletter promotion
As White House border czar (a position that does not require Senate confirmation), Homan, if confirmed, would not have direct control over Ice, which is under the direction of Trump’s Homeland Security secretary nominee Kristi Noem. do not have.
While President Trump and senior advisers have talked about using the National Guard to assist with deportations, Homan said only trained law enforcement officers are authorized to make immigration arrests and that military personnel are not authorized to carry out immigration arrests. and other support services.
“I believe this is a clean-up operation and not the military patrolling the neighborhood,” he said. Instead, arrests would “target” people with criminal records.
He has previously vowed to jail local Democratic mayors and officials who try to block his deportations.
Homan said workplace raids by Ice officers, which were abolished by the Biden administration, will be reinstated. “We don’t really have a plan for enforcement on the ground. We know that employers will be upset.”
He also said he would urge the new administration to reintroduce the Remain in Mexico program, which Biden also abolished. The program required asylum seekers to wait outside the United States while their claims were considered.
