Donald Trump’s ‘border czar’ to Democrats: ‘Game on’

President-elect Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, is warning Democrats to get in line with the incoming administration’s plans for mass deportations.
“Game on,” Homan said in an interview on Fox News in response to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ opposition to Trump’s plans. Democratic Congresswoman Nanette Diaz Barragán made the statement late last week.
“Shame on her,” Homan said.
Homan is Trump’s former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director. He’s known as a tough-talking former Border Patrol agent who worked his way up to head the agency in 2017 and 2018. He was never confirmed by the Senate, and his new role does not require it.
At the National Conservatism Conference in Washington earlier this year, Homan said that while he thinks the government needed to prioritize national security threats, “no one’s off the table. If you’re here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder.”
He also 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.”
Trump has long vowed the mass deportation of people living in the country illegally, but logistical and financial challenges make that difficult to carry out.
ICE has about 41,500 detention beds at any one time, and countries have to agree to take back their citizens — which is not always a given, especially for those with which the U.S. has no diplomatic relations, like Venezuela.
Former President Barack Obama carried out 432,000 deportations in 2013, the highest annual total since records were kept. Deportations under Trump never topped 350,000.
Homan started his career in 1984 as a Border Patrol agent before moving to ICE. He was a relatively low-key but influential figure on immigration enforcement in the Obama administration, heading ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations arm — tasked with tracking down people who don’t have the right to be in the country and removing them.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Matt Arco may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @MatthewArco.