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Tom Homan
Acting Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
In office
January 30, 2017 – June 28, 2018
PresidentDonald Trump
DeputyPeter T. Edge (acting)
Preceded byDaniel Ragsdale (acting)
Succeeded byRonald Vitiello (acting)
Personal details
Born (1961-11-28) November 28, 1961 (age 62)
West Carthage, New York, U.S.
EducationJefferson Community College (AS)
SUNY College of Technology at Utica–Rome (BAS)

Thomas Douglas Homan[1] (born November 28, 1961) is an American former police officer and government official who served during the first Trump Administration as acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from January 30, 2017, to June 29, 2018.[2] Within the Trump administration, he was among the most strident proponents of separating children from their parents as a means of deterring illegal entry into the country.[3] Since his retirement from government, he has been a Fox News contributor.[4]

Career

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Homan was born in West Carthage, New York. He holds an associate degree in criminal justice from Jefferson Community College and a bachelor's degree from SUNY Polytechnic Institute.[5] He was a police officer in West Carthage before joining what was then called the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1984. He was a Border Patrol agent, investigator, and supervisor before being appointed by President Barack Obama to Executive Associate Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2013.[6]

By 2014, he had begun to argue that separating children from their parents would be an effective means of discouraging illegal border crossings. The journalist Caitlin Dickerson describes him as the "intellectual father" of the policy, which he outlined years before it was adopted by the Trump administration. “Most parents don’t want to be separated,” he told Dickerson. He argued that this fact made separation an effective tool for immigration enforcement: “I’d be lying to you if I didn’t think that would have an effect.”[3]

In 2015, President Obama gave him a Presidential Rank Award as a Distinguished Executive. A Washington Post article at the time stated, "Thomas Homan deports people. And he's really good at it."[7][8]

Acting director of ICE

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On January 30, 2017, President Donald Trump demoted acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Daniel Ragsdale to deputy director, a position he already held, and appointed Homan as acting director.[9][10][11][12][13]

In May 2017, Homan announced ICE had arrested 41,319 people between Inauguration Day and the end of April, a 38% increase from the same period the year before.[14]

As acting ICE director, Homan said that undocumented immigrants "should be afraid."[15] He has denied saying "aliens commit more crimes than US citizens".[16]

On November 14, 2017, Trump nominated Homan for ICE Director.[17]

In February 2018, Homan said that politicians who support sanctuary city policies should be charged with crimes.[18]

In April 2018, he and Kevin McAleenan formally advised Secretary of Homeland Security Kierstjen Nielsen to implement the Trump administration's "Zero Tolerance" policy on immigration, including the prosecution of parents and the separation of children from their families. Homan participated in the May 2018 press conference announcing that the policy was going into effect.[3]

On April 30, 2018, he announced that he would retire from his position as acting ICE Director effective June of the same year.[19]

On June 5, 2018, Homan appeared for a discussion with the Policy Director of the Center for Immigration Studies, where he defended the separation of children from their parents.[20][21]

Post-government

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In July 2019, Homan testified before the House Oversight Committee regarding the Trump administration's family separation policy.[22]

On February 25, 2022, Homan was slated as a keynote speaker for the America First Political Action Conference held near Orlando, Florida, but left before the conference began after he learned that the founder Nick Fuentes had praised Putin for the Invasion of Ukraine.[23]

Homan joined the Heritage Foundation in February 2022 and became a contributor to its Project 2025, which proposes mass arrests, detentions and deportations of undocumented immigrants across the nation.[24][25][26] The proposal mirrors Trump's plans for a second term.[27]

At a July 2024 National Conservatism Conference meeting, Homan said if "Trump comes back in January, I'll be on his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen. They ain't seen shit yet. Wait until 2025."[28] During a campaign rally the next day, Trump signaled he would bring Homan back for a second Trump administration.[29][better source needed] On July 17 at the 2024 Republican National Convention, Homan called Biden's immigration policies "national suicide" and told "millions of illegal aliens" to "start packing".[30]

References

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  1. ^ Steinbuch, Yaron (June 14, 2019). "Trump names former ICE chief Thomas Homan as 'border czar'". New York Post.
  2. ^ "Statement from Secretary Kelly on the President's Appointment of Thomas D. Homan as Acting ICE Director". The US Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  3. ^ a b c Dickerson, Caitlin (August 7, 2022). "An American Catastrophe". The Atlantic. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  4. ^ Blitzer, Jonathan (June 24, 2019). "ICE Agents Are Losing Patience with Trump's Chaotic Immigration Policy". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved July 3, 2019.
  5. ^ "Trump appoints West Carthage native as ICE director". Watertown Daily Times.
  6. ^ Nixon, Ron (January 31, 2017). "Trump Names Thomas Homan as Acting Immigration Enforcement Chief". The New York Times. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  7. ^ "Meet the man the White House has honored for deporting illegal immigrants". The Washington Post. April 25, 2016. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  8. ^ "5 things to know about ICE Director Thomas Homan". ABC 10. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
  9. ^ Berman, Mark; Zapotosky, Matt (January 30, 2017). "Trump appoints new Immigration and Customs Enforcement director noted for his work deporting illegal immigrants". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  10. ^ Chamberlain, Samuel (January 31, 2017). "Trump Names Thomas Homan Acting Director of ICE". Fox News. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  11. ^ Lavender, Paige (January 30, 2017). "Trump Fires ICE Director Daniel Ragsdale, Appoints Thomas Homan". The Huffington Post. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  12. ^ "Statement from Secretary Kelly on the President's Appointment of Thomas D. Homan as Acting ICE Director". Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  13. ^ Lichtblau, Eric; Apuzzo, Matt; Landler, Mark (January 30, 2017). "Trump Fires Acting Attorney General". The New York Times. Retrieved January 31, 2017. The decision by the acting attorney general is a remarkable rebuke by a government official to a sitting president that recalls the dramatic "Saturday Night Massacre" in 1973, when President Richard M. Nixon fired his attorney general and deputy attorney general for refusing to dismiss the special prosecutor in the Watergate case. That case prompted a constitutional crisis that ended when Robert Bork, the solicitor general, acceded to Mr. Nixon's order and fired Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor.
  14. ^ Dickerson, Caitlin (May 18, 2017). "Immigration Arrests Rise Sharply as a Trump Mandate Is Carried Out". The New York Times. p. A22. Retrieved May 19, 2017.
  15. ^ Kopan, Tal (June 16, 2017). "ICE Director: Undocumented Immigrants 'Should be Afraid'". CNN. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  16. ^ Mark, Michelle (June 28, 2017). "ICE Director Appears to Break with One of Trump's Key Beliefs on Immigrants and Crime". Business Insider. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  17. ^ "One Nomination Sent to the Senate". whitehouse.gov. November 14, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2017 – via National Archives.
  18. ^ Conradis, Brandon (January 2, 2018). "Trump ICE pick: Politicians who run sanctuary cities should be charged with crimes". The Hill. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
  19. ^ The Hill. "Acting ICE director to retire". Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  20. ^ Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Defends Separating Families at the Border, Time Magazine, Maya Rhodan, June 5, 2018. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
  21. ^ Rod, Marc (June 19, 2018). "Acting ICE director on whether 'zero tolerance' policy is humane: 'It's the law'". CNN. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  22. ^ Kaufman, Elle (July 12, 2019). "Former ICE official trades heated words with lawmakers at hearing". CNN. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  23. ^ Mathias, Christopher (March 3, 2022). "White Nationalists with lanyards: Orlando showed the ugly future of the Republican Party". HuffPost. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
  24. ^ "Heritage Foundation Welcomes Tom Homan, Former Acting ICE Director, as New Visiting Fellow". Heritage Foundation. February 14, 2022.
  25. ^ "Project 2025" (PDF). Heritage Foundation. May 29, 2024.
  26. ^ "5 Reasons Leftists HATE Project 2025" (PDF). The Heritage Foundation. April 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 3, 2024. Retrieved May 3, 2024. Arresting, detaining, and removing immigration violators anywhere in the United States.
  27. ^ Savage, Charlie; Haberman, Maggue; Swan, Jonathan (November 11, 2023). "Sweeping Raids, Giant Camps and Mass Deportations: Inside Trump's 2025 Immigration Plans". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on July 5, 2024.
  28. ^ Weigel, David (July 9, 2024). "Trump's 'national conservative' allies plot a revenge administration". Semafor.
  29. ^ https://x.com/meridithmcgraw/status/1810833013669859511 [bare URL]
  30. ^ Mathias, Christopher (July 18, 2024). "He Went To A White Supremacist Conference. He Just Spoke At The RNC". HuffPost. Archived from the original on July 18, 2024. Retrieved July 18, 2024.
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Government offices
Preceded byas acting director Acting Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
2017–2018 		Succeeded byas acting director
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