Tom Homan, President-elect Donald Trump’s new ‘border czar’ declared on Monday that he “does not care what people think” about him as he executes Trump’s plan to launch what he calls the largest deportation operation in the country’s history.
In an appearance on Fox & Friends, Homan defended the plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, and dismissed the backlash he will face over the policy.
“Frankly, I don’t care what people think about me, especially in the left,” Homan said in a clip highlighted by Mediaite. “Again, you know, when you have a historic crisis like crisis, here’s what you need to know when you have a crisis, this overwhelms and border patrol we’re the moral majority border are no longer on patrol.”
He continued: “I don’t care what anybody’s opinions on illegal immigration. When you create a crisis this big, all these other bad things happen. That’s what we have to secure the border.”
Trump announced Homan’s appointment as his ‘border czar’ in a post on Truth Social on Sunday.
“I am pleased to announce that the Former ICE Director, and stalwart on Border Control, Tom Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration, in charge of our Nation’s Borders,” he wrote.
Homan served as the acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director during the first 18 months of Trump’s administration after decades of experience in ICE and Border Patrol.
He was responsible for the Trump administration’s zero tolerance immigration policy that separated families at the border.
Since leaving the administration, Homan has been an outspoken supporter of Trump’s policies and repeatedly defended deportation efforts.
“I hear a lot of people say, you know, the talk of a mass deportation is racist.” Homan said in a 60 minutes interview last month. “It’s threatening to immigrant community. It’s not threatening to the immigrant community. It should be threatening to the illegal immigrant community. But on the heels of [a] historic illegal immigration crisis. That has to be done.”
At the National Conservatism Conference, in Washington earlier this year, Homan expressed frustration at the news coverage of a mass deportation operation.
“They ain’t seen shit yet. Wait until 2025,” he said.
“You’ve got my word. Trump comes back in January, I’ll be in his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen,” he added.
Trump is expected to sign an executive order ordering agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, to begin those deportations when he returns to office, the Wall Street Journal reported.
It is unclear how Trump will pay for the deportations of millions of undocumented immigrants which the American Immigration Council (AIC) estimated could cost as much as $315 billion between detainments, arrests, legal processing, and removals.
Experts also warned that Trump’s mass deportation plan will severely hurt America’s economy.
“Overall, mass deportation would lead to a loss of 4.2% to 6.8% of U.S. GDP, or $1.1 trillion to $1.7 trillion in 2022 dollars,” according to the AIC. The group noted that the economic devastation of the 2007-2009 Great Recession involved a loss of 4.3% of the national GDP.
