Trump's “border czar” is “extreme, ineffective”: ex-homeland security worker

President-elect Donald Trump's recently announced candidate for “border czar” Tom Homan has an “extreme and ineffective” track record, according to former homeland security adviser to Mike Pence.

Trump wrote on Truth Social late Sunday that he was “pleased to announce” that Homan, his former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), “will be joining the Trump administration in charge of the borders.” “Our nation is responsible.”

Trump said Homan would be “responsible for all deportations of illegal aliens back to their country of origin” and would also oversee the northern and southern borders and “all maritime and air security.”

On Monday, Olivia Troye, who advised former Vice President Pence on national security issues during the first Trump administration, criticized Trump's decision on X (formerly Twitter).

“Trump's plan to appoint Tom Homan as 'border czar' is no coincidence. Homan's track record? Extreme and ineffective measures that target all immigrants, not just criminals,” she wrote. “But the real goal here is deeper: dismantling DHS and dismantling our homeland security system as we know it. It's not about solutions; it’s about disruption.”

Newsweek Troye reached out for comment Monday via social media direct message, Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung via email and Homan via an online form.

In a follow-up post, Troye, now a media commentator and Trump critic, said Homan spread disinformation about an undocumented immigrant who allegedly started the deadly Northern California wildfires in October 2017.

“In 2017, Tom Homan, as acting ICE director, decided to spread disinformation about the California wildfires, claiming that an undocumented immigrant started them. “He then attacked the local sheriff’s office while they were in the middle of responding to this natural fire disaster and demanded that they turn the person over to ICE,” Troye said.

She added: “The immigrant had NOTHING to do with the wildfires. Those of us who work at DHS and actually support homeland security have watched this internally with horror. Remember this if something like this happens again.”

At the time of the fires, Homan released a statement regarding the Sonoma County Jail's repeated releases of a “dangerous criminal alien.” Sonoma County was one of the areas affected by the wildfires.

“This is particularly concerning given the massive wildfires already ravaging the region,” Homan said in the statement.

Meanwhile, Homan narrated Fox & friends On Monday, he said he was “honored” that Trump had chosen him as “border czar.”

“I have been on this network for years complaining about what this government has done to this border. I screamed and screamed about it and what they needed to do to fix it. When the President asked me, 'Would you come?' go back and repair?' Of course I would be a hypocrite if I didn't.

“I am honored that the president has asked me to come back and help resolve this national security crisis, so I look forward to it,” Homan said.

He added: “I have to go back and help because every morning I'm…mad about what this is all about.” [Biden] The government has damaged the most secure border in my lifetime, so I will go back and do what I can to fix it.

Who is Tom Homan?

Trump appointed Homan as acting director of ICE in January 2017, a position he held until his retirement in June 2018.

During that time, he oversaw the first Trump administration's zero-tolerance immigration policy, which resulted in the separation of thousands of families at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Atlantic called Homan the “intellectual father” of politics in a 2022 report, saying he was one of the first to propose the idea of ​​prosecuting illegal migrants who illegally cross the border with their children and separating families.

The plan was rejected as “heartless and impractical” during the Obama administration, the report said, but was later adopted during Trump's first term.

In 2023, Homan said he was tired of hearing about family separations. “I’m still getting sued over this… I don’t care, right? The bottom line is that we enforced the law,” he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

At the National Conservatism Conference earlier this year, Homan said: “Trump is coming back in January, I will be on his heels and carry out the largest deportation operation this country has ever seen. They didn't see shit. * Until 2025.