Trump’s Lead Border Adviser Pledges Return of Family Detention
U.S. immigration authorities are set to resume detaining families with children in government facilities when President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month, according to Tom Homan, the incoming White House “border czar.”
Homan stated that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to house parents and children in “soft-sided” tent facilities, similar to those previously used during spikes in immigration at the border.
He emphasized that the administration will not hesitate to deport parents in the country illegally, even if they have young children born in the U.S. Families will ultimately face a difficult choice: leave the country together or face separation.
“Here’s the issue,” Homan said in a candid interview where he offered some of his most detailed remarks yet on Trump’s proposed plans for mass deportations. “You knew you were in the country illegally and still decided to have a child. That’s a choice that put your family in this situation.”
In 2021, President Joe Biden ended the use of family detention, shutting down three ICE-operated “residential centers” that could house about 3,000 people.
These facilities had dormitory-style living arrangements and provided recreational and educational activities. However, immigration advocates and pediatricians criticized them, arguing that detention was detrimental to children’s well-being.
A federal judge overseeing immigration detention policies involving minors has set a 20-day limit for holding children in family detention centers. Since the deportation process often exceeds this timeframe, ICE has typically focused on removing adults who are easier to deport. But according to Homan, that approach could shift under Trump’s leadership.
“We’ll need to build family facilities,” he stated. “The number of beds required will depend on the data we gather.”
While Homan won’t be directly overseeing ICE operations in his new White House role, he’ll play a key part in shaping border and immigration policies alongside Kristi L. Noem, the current governor of South Dakota and Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE.
During Trump’s first term, Homan, as acting ICE director, spearheaded the controversial “zero tolerance” policy that led to the separation of over 4,000 children from their parents at the U.S. border.
He now says the administration’s renewed enforcement efforts aim to deport families together. However, he acknowledged a significant limitation: the government cannot deport children who are U.S. citizens. This means parents will face a difficult choice—stay together in the U.S. or leave their citizen children behind.
After retiring from ICE in 2018, Homan became a regular guest on Fox News, advocating the kind of unsentimental, unapologetic approach to immigration enforcement that seems to appeal to Trump.
But of all the border hard-liners in the incoming administration, Homan is perhaps the most cognizant of the limits of the government’s ability to deliver on promises of mass deportation — and the potential for a political backlash. During a 34-year career at the U.S. Border Patrol and ICE, he saw wide swings in public support for immigration enforcement.
“We need to show the American people we can do this and not be inhumane about it,” he said. “We can’t lose the faith of the American people.”
Homan was a senior official at ICE in 2012 when the agency deported more than 400,000 people, an all-time high. He said he was not ready to commit to a target number of deportations until he knows what resources will be available to expand ICE capacity: “I’ll be setting myself up for disappointment.”
Donald Trump and his senior advisers have pledged to deploy National Guard troops to assist with ramping up deportations. According to Tom Homan, a former acting ICE director, these troops would primarily provide transportation and logistical support.
However, he emphasized that only trained law enforcement personnel would be authorized to make immigration arrests. “This isn’t going to be military sweeps through neighborhoods,” Homan stated. He described the effort as a “targeted” operation, focusing on individuals with criminal records.
Homan also announced plans to launch a separate initiative to locate over 300,000 teenagers and children that he and other Trump allies have referred to as “missing.” Legal experts have questioned this terminology, noting that most of these young migrants and their guardians have simply stopped responding to government caseworkers.
Unaccompanied minors apprehended at the U.S. border are legally required to be transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), part of the Department of Health and Human Services. The ORR’s role includes placing these children with sponsors, often family members already in the U.S., who agree to oversee their compliance with immigration laws.
The government conducts welfare checks, typically through phone calls, but many minors and their sponsors either can’t be reached or don’t respond. Since 2019, approximately 450,000 unaccompanied minors have been processed by ORR, according to an August report from the Department of Homeland Security.
Of these, 32,000 failed to appear at court hearings, while 291,000 never received a court date due to ICE not issuing notices to appear.
Homan acknowledged that many of these minors are likely with family members but said he plans to involve nonprofit organizations and private contractors in a more aggressive effort to locate them. However, he admitted that securing additional funding for such an initiative could be a challenge.
“I believe some of these children are in forced labor or trapped in the sex trade,” he said. “Others may be perfectly fine. Our goal is to ensure their safety.”
Still, Homan suggested that parents who entered the U.S. illegally, sent for their children, and then reclaimed them from government custody should face deportation proceedings. He clarified, “I’m not saying take them into custody. Let them reunite with their child and go to court to plead their case as a family.”
Immigration advocates have expressed concerns about using the refugee resettlement sponsor program as a tool for enforcement, arguing that fear of ICE arrests will deter parents and relatives from stepping forward to claim children.
These fears aren’t new — in 2019, Stephen Miller, a close Trump adviser, unsuccessfully tried to embed an ICE official within the refugee resettlement office.
Now, Caleb Vitello, the official who would have taken that role, is set to become acting ICE director when Trump takes office in January.
Lee Gelernt, the ACLU attorney who argued many of the highest-profile immigration cases during Trump’s first term, including the challenge to family separations, said the president-elect’s immigration enforcement picks appear to be dusting off their old playbook.
“The incoming administration has refused to acknowledge the horrific damage it did to families and little children the first time around and seems determined to once again target families for gratuitous suffering,” Gelernt said.
In electing Trump, he added, “the public may have voted in the abstract for mass deportations, but I don’t think they voted for more family separation or unnecessary cruelty to children.”
Worksite raids by ICE, which Biden ended, will return with Trump, Homan said. “We haven’t really worked out the plan for worksite enforcement,” he said. “We know that employers are going to be upset.”
He said he also wants the new administration to bring back the “Remain in Mexico” program, which required asylum seekers to wait outside U.S. territory while their claims were considered in U.S. courts. Biden ended that program after taking office in 2021.
Illegal border crossings subsequently soared to record levels but have fallen sharply this year as the Biden administration implemented sweeping asylum restrictions and pushed deportations to a 10-year high.
Biden officials have offset their crackdown with a major expansion of “lawful pathways” that allow roughly 70,000 migrants per month to apply to enter the United States legally. Internal audits have found the sponsorship programs have been exploited by traffickers in some instances.
In particular, he said he will review the government’s use of the CBP One mobile app, which the Biden administration has used as a queue management tool. It offers 1,450 appointments per day for migrants to make humanitarian claims at official border crossings. Homan said it has facilitated fraudulent claims.
Asked whether illegal crossings could end up increasing if Trump takes away the app and other legal entry channels, Homan said strict enforcement — including not releasing migrants into the country while their asylum claims are processed — will produce a deterrent effort.
“At the beginning we may see numbers coming up when we shut these programs down,” he said. “They’re going to try to come illegally, but once the message is clear that we’re ending catch-and-release, the numbers will reduce.”