Homan, who has worked under both the Obama and Trump administrations, has become one of the strongest defenders of Trump’s immigration policies.
Following the second lethal shooting involving federal personnel in Minneapolis this weekend, President Trump sent his border czar, Tom Homan, to Minnesota to supervise the administration’s operations here.
“He’s with the governor and he’s with the mayor,” President Trump remarked before a trip to Iowa on Tuesday, “and I hear things are progressing very nicely”.
Homan, 64, has been engaged in federal immigration enforcement endeavors since the 1980s. After climbing the ranks as a field agent, he served as one of ICE’s senior officials under President Obama, beginning in 2013, and received a Presidential Rank Award in 2015 “for leaders who achieve sustained extraordinary results”.
When the Obama administration altered priorities in its closing years to focus on deporting individuals with more grave criminal convictions, Homan gave testimony before Congress in May 2016 and faced rigorous questioning from Republican lawmakers regarding why deportation figures had declined.
After President Trump secured the 2016 presidential election, however, he selected Homan as acting ICE director and subsequently placed Homan into the permanent role.
Who is Tom Homan, Trump’s ‘border tsar’ deployed to Minneapolis?
As ICE director during Trump’s first term, and presently as border czar in the second term, Homan is one of the most robust supporters of the president’s immigration enforcement strategies. He has backed the family separation policy and has assisted in executing the Trump administration’s vow of mass deportation, which expands targets to anyone in the country unlawfully, rather than merely convicted criminals.
“This is unprecedented success. The border is secure,” Homan declared last April. “President Trump’s saving lives. President Trump has demonstrated no one does it better than President Trump”.
Now, President Trump has positioned Homan as the public face of the administration’s agendas in Minnesota, succeeding Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino, who is no longer in the city.
However, immigration proponents, such as Heidi Altman with the National Immigration Law Center, remain seriously concerned about the situation on the ground.
“There’s so much relief for Bovino to be departing, but as we experience that relief, we must keep our eyes really wide open concerning who Tom Homan is,” Altman noted. “If you listen to his interviews, and take his words at face value, that by carrying out the Trump administration’s mission, he’s living out his true values”.
Altman stated she thinks the current of public opinion is turning against immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota and elsewhere.
“This is the classic moment, right? Of, ‘They came for X, then they came for Y, then you realized they were going to come for you,'” Altman said. “You observe this reflected very plainly in the polls — that Americans are beginning to realize that what ICE is doing, what CBP is doing, in our localities, it’s making all of us less safe”.
