Trump says former Ice director Tom Homan will be in charge of borders and deportations
US president-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), will be in charge of the country’s borders in his new administration.
Homan’s areas of control will include “the southern border, the northern border, all maritime, and aviation security”, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. Trump added that “border czar” Homan will be in charge of the deportation of illegal immigrants.
Homan, who served in Trump administration for a year and a half during his first term, is also a contender for secretary of homeland security.
Mass deportations – and housing migrants in camps – were a key part of Trump’s pitch on the campaign trail. Trump spoke favorably of Homan, telling Fox News host Harris Faulkner in July: “I have Tom Homan lined up, we have the greatest people.”
A Heritage fellow and Project 2025 author, Homan told this summer’s Republican national convention in Milwaukee he had “a message for the millions of illegal aliens who Joe Biden allowed to enter the country in violation of federal law – start packing, because you’re going home.”
At a panel on immigration policy in July, Homan said: “Trump comes back in January, I’ll be on his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen.”
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Justo Robles
Many families risk being torn apart if Trump follows through with his mass deportation promise. My colleague Justo Robles reports on the devastating human cost this policy would have on millions of people across the US. Here is an extract from his story:
Immigration experts acknowledge that Trump’s notion will require major infrastructure, including new detentions camps, and they expect him to do what he says he plans to do.
“There are a lot of people in our community living in mixed-status families, so mass deportations are a direct threat,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, executive director of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, a social justice law firm based in Los Angeles that serves people facing deportation.
She added: “The (2016) Trump administration has shown a disdain for immigrant children in the past, so it’s going to require organizers working with lawyers, working with communities, and we intend to challenge him in the courts”
Advocates warned that in his attempt to “secure the border”, Trump was likely to fulfill his pledge to restore many of his controversial immigration programs, such as the policy known as Remain in Mexico, which Joe Biden ended.
The program forced people seeking asylum in the US to wait in Mexico while their claims were processed. Between January 2019 and June 2021, 74,000 asylum seekers were sent back to Mexico, vulnerable to kidnapping, extortion and sexual violence.
“We believe that the program violated US law because of the lack of allowing people access to counsel, so we will continue to challenge that program,” Toczylowski said.
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In an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Tom Homan said the military would not be rounding up and arresting immigrants in the country illegally and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would move to implement Trump’s plans in a “humane manner”.
“It’s going to be a well-targeted, planned operation conducted by the men of ICE. The men and women of ICE do this daily. They’re good at it,” he said. “When we go out there, we’re going to know who we’re looking for. We most likely know where they’re going to be, and it’s going to be done in a humane manner.”
Trump has promised that his campaign pledge to expel millions of undocumented immigrants would be implemented come what may.
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Updated at 06.22 EST
Trump says former Ice director Tom Homan will be in charge of borders and deportations
US president-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), will be in charge of the country’s borders in his new administration.
Homan’s areas of control will include “the southern border, the northern border, all maritime, and aviation security”, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. Trump added that “border czar” Homan will be in charge of the deportation of illegal immigrants.
Homan, who served in Trump administration for a year and a half during his first term, is also a contender for secretary of homeland security.
Mass deportations – and housing migrants in camps – were a key part of Trump’s pitch on the campaign trail. Trump spoke favorably of Homan, telling Fox News host Harris Faulkner in July: “I have Tom Homan lined up, we have the greatest people.”
A Heritage fellow and Project 2025 author, Homan told this summer’s Republican national convention in Milwaukee he had “a message for the millions of illegal aliens who Joe Biden allowed to enter the country in violation of federal law – start packing, because you’re going home.”
At a panel on immigration policy in July, Homan said: “Trump comes back in January, I’ll be on his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen.”
You can read more here:
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NY congresswoman Elise Stefanik chosen by Trump to be new US ambassador to UN
The New York Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik has accepted President-elect Donald Trump’s offer to be the US ambassador to the United Nations, a role once held by former Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley.
Stefanik, a Trump-skeptic turned Trump-ally, is the House Republican Conference chair, making her the fourth-ranking House Republican.
“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 said in a statement to the New York Post.
As my colleague Peter Stone notes in this profile on Stefanik, the 40-year-old was among the first House members to endorse Trump’s 2024 re-election bid and has mirrored Trump’s false claims about his 2020 defeat and the January 6 insurrection by his allies who attacked the Capitol.
“I am truly honored to earn President Trump’s nomination to serve in his Cabinet as US Ambassador to the United Nations,” Stefanik said in a statement confirming her acceptance of Trump’s offer.
“During my conversation with President Trump, I shared how deeply humbled I am to accept his nomination and that I look forward to earning the support of my colleagues in the United States Senate.”
“America continues to be the beacon of the world, but we expect and must demand that our friends and allies be strong partners in the peace we seek,” she added. An official announcement has not yet been made yet about the UN job, which is a role that comes with offices and a residence in New York.
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Updated at 05.46 EST
France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, has said the incoming US administration under Donald Trump should not be “pre-judged”. As we have been reporting, there is speculation that Trump may reduce military support to Kyiv in office, despite Ukrainian soldiers desperately needing weapons to fend off Russian attacks.
Trump has refused to elaborate when asked whether he thinks Zelenskyy should cede territory to Russia in negotiations to end the war, which he has characterised as a drag on American resources.
Stressing the need to continue to support Kyiv, Barrot said Ukraine should determine the timing and conditions for engaging in any negotiation process.
Barrot told the Paris Peace Forum:
Facing the speculation on what could be the positions or initiatives of the new US administration, I think that we absolutely should not prejudge and we have to give it (the administration) time…
Ukraine, and beyond that the international community, would have too much to lose if Russia imposed the law of the strongest.
Palais de Chaillot, 7e édition du Forum de Paris sur la Paix (#PPF2024). Dans le cadre du panel consacré à l’Ukraine, sous le thème : “L’avenir de l’Ukraine à la croisée des chemins.” – La France, par l’intermédiaire de Jean-Noël Barrot, ministre de l’Europe et des Affaires… pic.twitter.com/mJKrCsoFBQ
— Dworaczek-Bendome (@DworaczekBendom) November 11, 2024
During the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly said he would end the war, but did not specify how. You can read more about how Trump might handle the war in Ukraine in this explainer.
France’s defence minister said on Sunday that Paris was sending a new batch of long-range missiles to Ukraine so it could strike behind Russian lines.
“President Volodymr Zelenskyy has met President-elect Donald Trump numerous times and I don’t doubt that a strong relationship will be established with the new administration,” Barrot said.
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Updated at 05.20 EST
The claims and counter-claims over the disputed call come amid trepidation in Europe over Trump’s approach to Ukraine. This morning, the British and French leaders are meeting in Paris to observe Armistice Day events but will also be discussing the implications of Trump’s victory.
My colleague Andrew Sparrow is covering UK political news and reports on the UK defence secretary John Healey talking down the risk that Trump’s re-election poses to Ukraine rather than talking it up.
I don’t expect the US to turn away from Nato. They recognise the importance of the alliance. They recognise the importance of avoiding further conflict in Europe.
Healey said US support for Nato “goes back decades, and that has remained, including through the previous President Trump administration”. He also said Trump had “rightly” pushed for European nations to spend more on defence.
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Meanwhile, away from the disputed call, the race for a new Senate majority leader is heating up, with three Republicans vying for the spot. Senator Rick Scott of Florida has so far won the support from Trump’s Maga camp, including from RFK Jr, Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk.
Donald Trump has yet to announce an endorsement himself, though he said on Sunday that he would want a new leader to conduct “recess appointments”, a controversial method of getting cabinet members into office quickly while temporarily sidestepping a lengthy Senate confirmation process.
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Vladimir Putin has demanded Ukraine withdraw from swathes of its eastern and southern territory as a precondition to peace talks, Agence France-Presse reports.
Following Donald Trump’s election, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned there should be “no concessions” to Putin.
Ceding land or giving in to any of Moscow’s other hardline demands would only embolden the Kremlin and lead to more aggression, he said.
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Washington has provided tens of billions of dollars worth of US military and economic aid to Ukraine since it was invaded by Russia in February 2022, funding that Trump has repeatedly criticised.
You can read our report on the Kremlin’s denial here:
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During the election campaign, Trump said he would find a solution to end the Ukraine war “within a day”, but did not explain how he would do so.
According to the Washington Post’s report of the call the US president-elect advised the Russian leader not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of “Washington’s sizeable military presence in Europe”.
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Kremlin denies reports of Trump-Putin call over Ukraine
Reuters has more on the Kremlin’s denial that a Trump-Putin call took place.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
This is completely untrue. This is pure fiction, it’s just false information. There was no conversation. This is the most obvious example of the quality of the information that is being published now, sometimes even in fairly reputable publications.”
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Updated at 04.51 EST
Good morning, and welcome to our US politics blog as the Kremlin denies reports that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have discussed the Ukraine war in a phone call, dismissing it as “pure fiction”.
The Washington Post first reported that the call between the Russian leader and the US president-elect took place on Thursday.
On Monday morning, Reuters reported that Putin has no specific plans to speak to Trump at the present, according to his Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.
Here’s our report on the disputed call:
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