President-elect Donald Trump’s swift choice of former acting ICE Director Tom Homan as the nation’s “border czar” is quickly winning applause from immigration hawks.
“This is what Americans voted for — seasoned, determined, and unflappable professionals like Tom Homan who will see to it that our borders are re-secured and that immigration laws are enforced within the country,” said Jessica Vaughan, the policy director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
“Tom Homan will be a GREAT Border Czar!” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said on X.
Homan’s selection has been a long time coming. During the first Trump administration, there were rumors that he would be named border czar.
Congratulations @RealTomHoman!!
Tom Homan will be a GREAT Border Czar!
He will secure our border and deport people who invaded our country.
No other country on Earth allows millions of people to come in and pays for them to be there.
Americans have been murdered, raped,…
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
(@RepMTG) November 11, 2024
While considered mostly a Trump ally, the former New York police officer worked for six presidents before Trump came to office in 2017, and he considered himself a “Ronald Reagan holdover.”
He told Secrets at the time: “I’m not the smartest guy to ever sit in this chair, I’m a cop, but I don’t think anybody who sat in this chair knows more about immigration enforcement than I do.”
Back then, Homan was planning to retire from the government, but Trump talked him into staying. Since President Joe Biden’s election, Homan has been a regular immigration talker in the media and a lead critic of the Biden administration’s open borders policy.
Friends describe him as a tough law enforcement officer with a big heart that was forever changed when he witnessed the carnage of 19 dead immigrants in the back of a truck in 2003 in Victoria, Texas.
He has since made it his job to stop illegal immigration, crush the cartels that traffic in migrants, and kick out criminal immigrants.
Vaughan said Homan’s mission is clear. “Communities that have been overwhelmed with illegal migrants can now look forward to some relief from the problems of crowding, crime, and other costs. Finally we will see some bold action against the cartels, the gangs, and the human traffickers who were thriving under the Biden-Mayorkas open border policies,” she told Secrets Monday.
In my 2017 interview, Homan hinted at one of the reasons Trump wanted him — he is a loyal soldier and not a policy gadfly who will ignore the president’s wishes.
“I worked for six different presidents. I don’t get to pick the president I work for. I was a career law enforcement officer. My job is to execute the mission within the framework provided me. That is my job. I did it for Ronald Reagan. I did it for George Bush. I did it for George W. Bush. I did it for Bill Clinton. I did it for every president,” Homan said.
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“When people say I’m an Obama holdover, I say, well, actually, I worked for six presidents, I like to consider myself a Ronald Reagan holdover,” he said. “Now, did I agree with the policies of the Obama administration? No. I certainly had many, many records where I pushed back on the administration. … I always asked to do more.”
He also won points for his genuineness. At the time, I wrote: “In addition to his experience, Homan is getting kudos for his no-nonsense, straight-talking and everyday style, right down to his beer of choice: Pabst Blue Ribbon.”