Tom Homan, the former Acting Director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, addressed supporters of former US President Donald Trump at a rally held at the Banks County Dragway in Commerce, Georgia, on March 26, 2022. The event was captured in a photo by AFP.
US President-elect Donald Trump announced on Sunday night that he was reappointing the tough-on-immigration official Tom Homan to manage the country's borders under his new administration. The 78-year-old Republican leader has vowed to initiate, on the first day of his presidency, the most extensive deportation operation of undocumented immigrants in US history.
"I am delighted to reveal that the former ICE Director, and a steadfast advocate for Border Control, Tom Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration as the head of our nation's borders ('The Border Czar')," Trump shared on his social network, Truth Social. "I have known Tom for many years, and there is no one more capable of policing and managing our borders." Trump further stated that Homan would oversee "all deportations of illegal aliens back to their countries of origin."
Trump, who never acknowledged his 2020 defeat, secured an extraordinary return to the presidency in the November 5 vote, ensuring that his hardline right-wing policies will dominate US politics for over a decade. Throughout his campaign, he frequently criticized undocumented immigrants, using inflammatory language to describe those he claimed were 'poisoning the blood' of the US.
Despite the US government's long-standing challenges in managing its southern border with Mexico, Trump has exacerbated these concerns by alleging an 'invasion' by migrants he claims will rape and murder Americans. In his rally speeches, he dramatically exaggerated local tensions and misrepresented immigration statistics and policies. Violent crime, which increased during Trump's presidency, has decreased every year under President Joe Biden's administration. Migrants commit fewer crimes proportionately than the native population, although some foreign suspects have been involved in high-profile cases of violent attacks on women and children, angering Republicans.
The number of US border patrol encounters with migrants illegally crossing from Mexico is now similar to 2020, the last year of Trump's presidency, after reaching a record 250,000 in December 2023. Trump pledged to combat migrant gangs using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which permits the federal government to detain and deport foreigners from enemy countries as part of a mass deportation initiative he named "Operation Aurora." Aurora was the location of a viral video showing armed Latinos storming an apartment block, which led to widespread, false narratives about the town being terrorized by Latin American migrants. Trump has also spread the fabricated story that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating residents' pets.
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