Migrant families will return to being put in detention centers after President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in, and the government will not hesitate to deport parents with U.S.-born children, according to Tom Homan, the incoming White House "border czar."
"Here's the issue. You knew you were in the country illegally and chose to have a child. So you put your family in that position," Homan said in an extensive interview, reports The Washington Post on Thursday.
He said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is looking to hold parents with children in tent structures similar to those used by U.S. border officials while handling immigration surges.
The government will also leave it up to parents with U.S.-born children to decide whether to leave the country with their full families or have their families divided, leaving behind their children who are by birth American citizens.
In 2021, President Joe Biden stopped family deportations and closed three ICE residential centers for family detentions.
Homan said that once Trump comes into office and mass deportations start, the government will need to build family facilities.
"How many beds we're going to need will depend on what the data says," he added.
Homan, who was acting ICE director during Trump's first term, will not be directing the agency's operations in his role as border czar.
Instead, he's to work closely on immigration issues with South Dakota GOP Gov. Kristi Noem, Trump's pick to head the Department of Homeland Security, including ICE.
While leading ICE during Trump's first term, Homan worked with the "zero tolerance" that led to the separation of more than 4,000 children from their parents after they'd crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.
But he's seen wide swings in the public's support for immigration enforcement over his 34 years with the U.S. Border Patrol and ICE and acknowledged the need to show Americans that "we can do this and not be inhumane" about mass deportations.
In 2012, Homan was a senior ICE official when the federal agency deported more than 400,000 people.
However, he said he's not ready now to commit to any number target on deportations as he would be setting himself up for "disappointment" unless he knows what resources will be in place.
Trump has promised to use National Guard troops in deportations, but Homan stressed that only trained law enforcement officers can make immigration arrests.
"I don't see this thing as being sweeps and the military going through neighborhoods," Homan said, adding that the campaign will be targeted toward people with criminal records.
He also said he is launching a separate campaign to locate the more than 300,000 young immigrants who he and Trump allies claim are missing.
According to legal experts, the migrants and their caregivers are not responding to government caseworkers, but they are not missing.
Homan agreed that most of the young people are with parents or other family members, but he wants to track them down.
"I think some of these children will be in forced labor, and some will be in the sex trade," he said. "I think some will be perfectly fine. We just want to make sure."
Homan is also calling for parents who have come illegally into the country, sent for their children, and then reclaimed them from custody to be put in deportation proceedings.
"I'm not saying take them into custody," Homan said. "We'll let them get the child and put them in proceedings with the child, so they can go to court and plead their case as a family."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.