New York– US President-elect Donald Trump, announcing his first executive appointment, named Tom Homan as his ‘Border Czar’ to oversee his campaign promise of deporting illegal migrants and securing the borders.
“Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin,” Trump wrote late Sunday night on Truth Social.
Homan, 62, an advocate of “zero tolerance” for illegal migration served as the Acting Director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency for a year-and-a-half during Trump’s earlier stint and left before being confirmed to the post by the Senate.
He started as a border agent and rose through the ranks.
Trump wrote in his post, “Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration, in charge of our Nation’s Borders (‘The Border Czar’), including, but not limited to, the southern border, the northern border, all maritime, and aviation security”.
“I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our borders,” he wrote.
Homan is the second appointment Trump has announced, after appointing Susan Wiles as his Chief of Staff, and there are thousands to be filled.
Trump repeatedly said during his campaign that he would conduct mass deportations of illegal migrants starting with “Day 1” of his administration.
He said that many illegal migrants who were admitted without vetting were criminals and gang members and at his campaign rallies highlighted crimes like murder and rape they have been accused of.
Mass deportation of illegal migrants would be a daunting task with an estimated 11 million – or more – of them, and Holman laid out his priorities.
In an interview with the Fox News on Monday, Homan said that he was going to prioritise deporting the illegal migrants who are “public security and national security threats”, and those already ordered by judges to be deported.
Another priority, he said would be finding the 300,000 children who came in unaccompanied by adults and President Joe Biden’s administration lost track of.
Many of them ended up as victims of forced labour and child sex trafficking, he said.
The influx of illegal migrants during the administration of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris became a major election issue and was a factor in her defeat.
During most of the first three years of their administration, the border was virtually open, and they only tightened border restrictions starting in May last year as opposition to illegal migration increased.
Biden initially said that Harris would work on stemming the waves of illegal migration to the US by working with the countries in Latin America that send the most migrants.
That got her labelled the ‘Border Czar’ and she was personally blamed for the migrant crisis.
Of the about 11 million illegal migrants in the US in 2022, about 725,000 were Indians, making them the third largest group of illegal migrants, according to Pew Research Centre.
In the fiscal year, September 2022 to October 2023, alone about 97,000 Indians were caught by ICE crossing into the US illegally and almost all of them were released, according to official data.
Many of them came on “Donkey Flights” that take them to countries in Latin America with lax visa regulations and then make the arduous journey to the US with the help of “coyotes” – people smugglers – via the border with Mexico.
But nearly a third of them entered the US from Canada, according to government date.
US sent back only 1,100 Indians who were in the country illegally in 2023-24. (IANS)
