Tom Homan: From Border Patrol to Immigration and Customs Enforcement: What Did Trump Do in 2018, and How Did He Get What He Wanted?
The former policeman and Border Patrol agent has worked in law enforcement for three decades. He was the associate director of enforcement and removal operations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. During that administration, ICE carried out a record number of deportations. Tom Ho Man has more information.
Months earlier, speaking onstage at the Republican National Convention, Homan said Trump would designate Mexican cartels a “terrorist organization” for their role in getting fentanyl over the border, warning, “He’s gonna wipe you off the face of the Earth.”
CNN says he called for stronger enforcement at the White House and was applauded for allowing his agents to make a broader range of arrests.
Homan was one of the original architects of the controversial family separation policy. More than 5,500 children of immigrants were separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018 under the administration’s short-lived “Zero Tolerance” policy. According to the Department of Homeland Security, as of April, there were still 1,401 children without confirmed reunification.
After much opposition from both sides of the aisle, Trump signed an executive order stopping family separations in June of last year, but the Biden administration officially withdrew it days after Biden took office.
Trump’s nominee Elise Stefanik is a U.S. ambassador to the U.N. after his run for the White House
The Washington Post reported that Homan retired in frustration after the White House didn’t move his nomination to the Senate. He became a Fox News contributor, joined the conservative Heritage Foundation as a visiting fellow and contributed to Project 2025, its controversial blueprint for reshaping the federal government.
Trump had sought to distance himself from Project 2025 during his campaign, even though it overlaps with his own agenda. Trump made immigration a major part of his campaign and has vowed to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country without authorization.
“We’ll know where they’re going to be and we’ll be able to do it in a humane way,” Homan said, adding that it will be focused on public safety threats and the national.
In the days since Trump’s election, immigrants rights groups have said they stand ready to challenge his anti-migrant policies through protests, local legislation and lawsuits. And analysts from the Brookings Institution, the American Enterprise Institute and the Niskanen Center project that lower — potentially even negative — net migration to the U.S. would hurt the country’s economy, as NPR has reported.
On Monday, Trump offered Rep. Elise Stefanik, the New York Republican who chairs the House Republican Conference, to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The role requires Senate confirmation, which is all but guaranteed in the soon-to-be Republican-controlled chamber.
Miller is one of Trump’s longest-serving and most trusted advisers. He joined the White House as a senior adviser, after working for Trump on his presidential campaign.
“This is another fantastic pick by the president,” Vice President-elect JD Vance posted on x.com, an apparent confirmation of Miller’s rumored appointment, first reported by CNN.
The Story of Marco Rubio Trump and his Candidate for the Florida Senate Posthumous Supermajority. Read More about Rubio and his High-Power Consultations
He’s known best for his role as a lead author of some of the Trump administration’s strongest immigration plans in his first administration, including the highly controversial zero tolerance policies that led to children being separated from their parents.
America First Legal was supposed to be the conservative version of the American Civil Liberties Union when Miller started it. It worked with conservative lawyers who filed hundreds of lawsuits on behalf of conservative causes.
Miller said during one of Trump’s final rallies in Salem, Va. that “you can have your country back, and you can have your future back, and your state back.”
The selection officially brings Rubio into Trump’s fold and offers a new chapter in the evolving relationship between the former rivals for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. After being close to Trump on foreign relations, where he became a close adviser to him, as well as being a top contender for vice president, he turned against Trump when he was named his running mate. Read more about Marco Rubio
Trump is expected to nominate Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to serve as secretary of state, according to a source familiar with the selection. If he is confirmed, it would be the first Latino to ever serve as the nation’s top diplomat.
The Ice Maiden, Susie Wiles, and Mike Huckabee: U.S. Policy on Geopolitical Issues
Wiles managed Trump’s campaign quietly, making very few media or public appearances, though Trump proudly presented her during his election night speech in Palm Beach, Fla., saying “Susie likes to stay sort of in the back, let me tell you. The ice queen. We refer to her as the Ice Maiden. Read more about Susie Wiles
A number of his nominees do not need congressional approval, as well as senior advisers who do not need to be confirmed by the Senate.
As national security adviser, Rep. Mike Waltz will play an integral role in shaping U.S. policy on geopolitical conflicts ranging from the war in Ukraine to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. He is a leading critic of China in Congress and an ally of President Donald Trump.
“Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years,” Trump wrote in a statement announcing his intention to nominate Huckabee. “He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!” More about Mike Huckabee can be read.
In announcing his pick for the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Trump said Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses,” adding that Zeldin will still maintain “the highest environmental standards.”
Zeldin opposed a number of climate-related legislation while he was in Congress. Read more about Rep. Lee Zeldin