In President Donald Trump’s first term, Tom Homan was an architect of the infamous family separation policy and a key part of the anti-immigration regime. He served as Trump’s acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement but was never formally confirmed by the Senate to lead the agency, as required.
As Trump prepares for his second term, the president-elect announced he is bringing Homan back as “border czar” — an amorphous post with unclear formal authority but the advantage of not requiring Senate confirmation. Once again, Trump has found a way to empower Homan while shielding him from scrutiny.
“Appointing him to a position that doesn’t require confirmation avoids those hard questions.”
“My guess is that if he had to survive a political nomination process, there would be hard questions about his support for family separation during Trump 1.0,” said Nayna Gupta, policy director for the American Immigration Council. “Appointing him to a position that doesn’t require confirmation avoids those hard questions.”
Trump announced he was bringing Homan back in a social media post on Sunday night, writing that Homan would be “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.” Homan “will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin,” Trump wrote.
Homan joined the first Trump administration as a carryover from the Obama years, when he led ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations component and built a reputation as a relative moderate. He shed that veneer under Trump, defending the family separation policy that ripped thousands of children from their parents, unleashing massive raids, and urging criminal prosecution for leaders in “sanctuary” jurisdictions.
“We have seen over time his support and leadership of increasingly harsh and punitive policies, particularly in the interior of the U.S.,” Gupta told The Intercept. “That is an evolution we’ve seen, even though he seems to believe he is enforcing the laws as they’re written.”
Trump tapped Homan as acting director of ICE soon after taking office in January 2017, and he formally nominated Homan to lead the agency in November 2017. But Senate Republicans never held a confirmation hearing or a vote on the nomination.
By April 2018, Senate Democrats wanted to know why the Trump administration hadn’t sent vetting materials to the relevant Senate committee, particularly since Homan’s extended stint leading ICE in an “acting” capacity potentially violated federal law.
“We understand that the Trump Administration may be concerned about Mr. Homan answering questions under oath about his leadership of ICE, as well as the possibility that Mr. Homan’s nomination could be defeated in the Senate,” the Democrats wrote in a letter to the secretary of Homeland Security. “The absence of a Senate-confirmed head of ICE for more than a year hinders Congressional oversight and the efficient operation of the agency and is troubling in any circumstance.”
Instead of pushing Homan through, Trump withdrew the nomination in May 2018, and Homan retired from federal service later that summer. But his relatively brief time leading ICE left a grim impression on immigration advocates.
“What we know from his prior work and recent comments is that he supports a punitive, harsh agenda,” Gupta said. “He’s made clear that any undocumented person is at risk of detention and deportation.”
In the private sector, Homan continued to build his MAGA clout as an immigration hawk. He was a frequent Fox News contributor and joined the Heritage Foundation as a visiting fellow, where he co-signed the Project 2025 “playbook” as a contributor. (Although Homan is not credited for any specific section of the manifesto, the chapter on the Department of Homeland Security proposes that Trump “may need to take a novel approach to the confirmations process,” including by relying on “acting” officials.)
Homan established ties to other right-wing figures like former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Patrick Byrne, two leaders of the election denial movement. Homan served as the CEO of an organization co-founded by Flynn and Byrne, The America Project, which he praised for its far-flung “rights and freedoms” work, including fighting against the “grooming of young adults” and to “get the woke material out of schools.”
Homan also founded his own nonprofit, Border911, and was a director of the nonprofit that sponsored the “J6 Choir” anthem.
In 2022, he had been slated to speak at a conference organized by white nationalist Nick Fuentes’s group, American First Political Action Conference, but reportedly decided to leave upon learning that Fuentes had praised Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Trump had started endorsing Homan as a potential choice for his second administration during the summer, despite his campaign’s efforts to distance itself from Project 2025. Homan took the stage at the Republican convention in Milwaukee to caution undocumented immigrants to “start packing now.”
During a media blitz on Monday, Homan outlined what his tenure would entail, stating to Fox News, “We’re going to take the handcuffs off ICE,” as he spoke to Sean Hannity.
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