Who is Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s ‘border czar’? And what has he said about mass deportations?

President-elect Donald Trump spent a large part of his campaign attacking Vice President Kamala Harris for her performance in a role neither she nor anyone in the Biden administration held: "border czar." Now, Trump has created and filled the position for his new administration. 

In a Nov. 10 Truth Social post, Trump announced that Tom Homan would take the role, putting him in charge of "the Southern Border, the Northern Border, all Maritime, and Aviation Security."

Homan spent more than 30 years working in immigration enforcement, including under Trump’s first administration. He also recommended Trump’s contentious zero-tolerance policy, which led to family separations at the southwest border. 

In his new role, Homan will lead one of Trump’s main campaign promises: mass deportations. 

"Tom Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin," Trump’s post said. 

Here are some facts about Homan and what we know about how he’ll execute Trump’s immigration agenda.

Homan began his career in local law enforcement in New York in 1983 before becoming a U.S. Border Patrol agent. Homan also served in the Immigration and Naturalization Service — the precursor to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 

Homan became the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deportation branch in 2013 during former President Barack Obama’s second term. In that fiscal year, the agency deported more than 432,000 people — the most during any fiscal year of Obama’s terms and more than during any year of Trump’s presidency. 

Obama presented Homan with the 2015 Distinguished Presidential Rank Award — "the nation’s highest civil service award," a Department of Homeland Security statement said, "which is bestowed to leaders who’ve achieved sustained extraordinary results." Immigrant rights advocates dubbed Obama the "deporter in chief."

In January 2017, Trump named Homan the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s acting director. 

The Republican-controlled senate never held a confirmation hearing for Homan. In April 2018, Senate Democrats wrote a complaint letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen noting that the department had not responded to the Senate's Homeland Security Committee’s request for information about Homan.

Homan retired from federal service in 2018.

In June 2019, during a phone interview with Fox News, Trump said he had named Homan "border czar." But Homan never assumed such a role. 

After leaving his government position, Homan established Border 911, a nonprofit organization that says it educates "the American people about the facts of a non-secure border."  

In August 2018, Homan became a Fox News contributor. And in February 2022, Homan joined the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, as a visiting fellow. He is listed as a contributor to the group’s Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint for a Republican presidential administration. 

As Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s acting director, Homan was among the people who proposed the "zero-tolerance" policy, which called for prosecuting adults who illegally entered the U.S. and led to the separation of parents from children. Children were placed in the custody of a sponsor, such as a relative or foster home, or held in a shelter, while the parents went through prosecution. 

In a Pulitzer Prize-winning article, The Atlantic said Homan suggested the policy during his time in the Obama administration, but Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson rejected it. He suggested the policy again during the Trump administration. 

"I recommended zero-tolerance," to Nielsen, Homan said in a July 2019 congressional hearing. 

Tom Homan, former Acting Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is sworn in before testifying before the House Oversight Committee hearing on family separation and detention centers, July 12, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP)

More than 5,000 children were separated from their parents under the policy. In June 2018 Trump signed an executive order to keep children and parents together in detention. President Joe Biden’s administration rescinded the zero-tolerance policy.

Will the incoming Trump administration revive the zero-tolerance policy?

Homan told "60 Minutes" correspondent Cecilia Vega that he knows of no formal policy discussions. But when asked whether the policy should be on the table, he said: "It needs to be considered, absolutely."

As "border czar," Homan will report directly to Trump and work at the White House, Homan said in a Nov. 11 WWNY-TV interview. 

Unlike other positions, such as Homeland Security secretary, Homan will not have to go through Senate confirmation. Homan said he will work closely with the Department of Homeland Security and its agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. Trump said Nov. 11 that he will appoint South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as the Homeland Security secretary. 

Homan has said he will prioritize deporting people who threaten public safety and national security. However, he said that anyone who is in the country illegally should not feel comfortable.

"When you enter this country illegally, you have committed a crime," Homan said Nov. 11 on Fox News. "You are a criminal. And you’re not off the table."

Being in the U.S. without legal authorization is a civil, not criminal offense; crossing the U.S. border illegally is a criminal violation. 

Homan also said the Trump administration will conduct workplace immigration raids. 

He said he would not carry out mass neighborhood sweeps or build "concentration camps." But in April, Trump told Time magazine that building mass deportation camps was not out of the question.

Millions of people live in mixed-status families, meaning people share a home with at least one family member who is in the U.S. illegally, according to the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.

In the "60 Minutes" interview, Vega asked Homan whether there’s a way to carry out mass deportations without separating families.

"Of course there is," Homan said. "Families can be deported together."