What to know about Tom Homan, Trump's border czar, as he heads to Minneapolis

Here is what to know about Homan ahead of his arrival in the Twin Cities.

Homan has been in immigration enforcement for four decades

Homan, 64, started his career in 1984 as a Border Patrol agent before moving to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2003 when the agency was created as part of Homeland Security. He was a relatively low-key but influential figure on immigration enforcement in the Obama administration, heading ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations arm, which was tasked with tracking down people with outstanding deportation orders and removing them from the country.

Despite unwavering enthusiasm for Trump and withering criticism of President Joe Biden, he is seen by some as a voice of restraint and moderation compared with some in the current administration.

Homan, who is widely associated with immigration enforcement actions that separated families, was given a Presidential Rank Award by the Obama administration to tout his efficacy in 2015.

Homan was at his retirement party in January 2017 when Trump’s choice for homeland security secretary, John Kelly, asked him to stay at ICE. Homan accepted after taking a weekend to think about it and became a leading figure in the Trump administration through four tumultuous years.

Under Obama, the U.S. carried out 432,000 deportations in 2013, the highest annual total since records were kept. Deportations under the first Trump administration never topped 350,000.

Homan and Trump's ambitious enforcement plans

When he was appointed border czar, Homan was seen as a leader who not only aligned with Trump ideologically, but who also had significant practical experience in immigration policy.

Homan portrays illegal immigration as black-and-white and has made no apologies for Trump’s policy of targeting everyone in the country without status, not just those with criminal histories, public safety concerns and recent border crossers.

“If you’re in the country illegally, you should be concerned,” he said in a 2018 interview with The Associated Press. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be. Just like if I go speeding down the highway, are you worried about getting a ticket? If you lie on your taxes, are you worried about an audit?“

"People ask me all the time, why did you remove that guy who’s been here 12 years and has two U.S. citizen kids. I said because he had his due process,” he told the AP. “People think I enjoy this. I’m a father. People don’t think this bothers me. I feel bad about the plight of these people. Don’t get me wrong, but I have a job to do.”

He also said, in a separate interview, that worksite immigration enforcement operations — which the Biden administration largely stopped — would be necessary.

“I will run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen,” Homan said in 2024.

Homan vowed to target ‘worst of the worst’ in ‘humane manner’

In an appearance on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures" in 2024, Homan promised to target — at least initially — people posing a risk to public safety and pushed back on suggestions that the U.S. military would be assisting in finding and deporting immigrants.

“You concentrate on the public safety threats and the national security threats first, because they’re the worst of the worst,” he said on the show. He also said ICE would move to implement Trump’s plans in a “humane manner.”

On a separate “60 Minutes” interview before the 2024 presidential elections, Homan called suggestions of mass neighborhood raids or building camps to hold people “ridiculous.”

When asked whether there was a way to carry out deportations without separating families, he said, “Families can be deported together.”

There are countless recent examples across the country of arrests that don’t align with those priorities. In Minnesota, The Associated Press has reported on how ICE agents have detained people with legal immigration status and no criminal records, children and U.S. citizens.

Homan survived bribery accusations

The White House stood behind Homan in September following reports that he accepted $50,000 from undercover agents posing as businesspeople during an FBI operation, leading to a bribery investigation that was ultimately shut down by Trump's Justice Department.

Homan was accused of accepting the cash during a 2024 encounter with agents posing as businesspeople seeking government contracts that Homan suggested he could help them get in a second Trump term.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt characterized Homan’s encounter with the undercover agents as an effort by the Biden administration to “entrap one of the president’s top allies and supporters, someone who they knew very well would be taking a government position.”