In a move that seems designed to prove his commitment to hardline immigration policies, Donald Trumpeto has said he will appoint Tom Homan as his “border czar.” Trump appears to have relished the label he once applied to his former presidential rival so much that he’s now made it an official post in his incoming administration. Yet, the irony of the Homan appointment has gone largely unremarked.
Homan, after all, received the highest civil service award from none other than former Democratic President Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president. In 2016, Obama honored Homan for his efforts in immigration enforcement — efforts that earned Obama the title “Deporter-in-Chief” among immigrant advocates.
As head of the deportation branch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2013, Homan managed a sudden surge of unaccompanied children and families who crossed the southwest border from Central America. By 2015, his division set records for the share of deportees with criminal records, a fact that served to bolster Obama’s reputation for rigorous immigration enforcement.
Now, Homan is slated to return in 2025, seemingly eager to continue where he left off. In Trump’s first term, Homan drew controversy as acting director of ICE when he declared undocumented immigrants “should be afraid” under the Trump administration. He was one of the principal architects of the “zero tolerance” policy, which led to the notorious separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents — families were split up as adults were prosecuted for illegal entry, with their children sent to shelters for unaccompanied minors, often without plans for family reunification.
Homan left ICE in 2018 but will return in 2025 with even greater authority.
Homan has said he plans to prioritize criminals and national security threats, but will also target non-criminal migrants with final orders of deportation. To implement this, he would need to undo Biden-era policies directing ICE to focus on serious criminals, national security risks, and recent border crossers, effectively protecting long-term undocumented residents without serious criminal records from deportation.
In addition, Homan has signaled that he intends to revive large-scale workplace immigration raids, which the Biden administration ended in 2021. “That’s gonna be necessary,” he said on Fox.
For Latinos and other immigrants, who voted for and supported “47” and believe their undocumented families and friends will somehow be exempt from the sweeping deportations of 2025 because they are “good” and not “criminals,” I urge you to get ready for the wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Felicia J. Persaud is the publisher of NewsAmericasNow.com, a daily news outlet focused on positive news about Black immigrant communities from the Caribbean and Latin America.