Donald Trump's border czar said a minimum of 100,000 beds, more than double the number for which Immigration and Customs Enforcement is currently funded, will be needed to detain illegal migrants under the president-elect's expected mass deportation plan.
Tom Homan, the man in charge of Trump's planned mass deportation of illegal migrants, appeared Wednesday night on CNN and discussed the effort.
Currently funded for 40,000 detention beds, ICE will need to add significantly more. Homan said he would need a minimum of $86 million to fulfill deportation plan.
"It all depends on the funding I get from the Hill," Homan told CNN's Kaitlan Collins of the deportation effort's extent.
Homan said he was not sure how much additional funding Trump's administration will seek from the GOP-led House and Senate, but added he would ask the military for help in transporting migrants.
"They're not going to be out arresting people, but they can be a force multiplier in doing things we need to do that doesn't require a badge and a gun," he said.
Homan warned Monday that migrants who do not have criminal histories undoubtedly will be subject to "collateral arrests."
"In sanctuary cities, expect a lot of collateral arrests," Homan told the Washington Examiner. "I mean, not priority criminal arrests. We can't get the bad guy in jail. That means we have to go into the communities and find them, and there may be others. We expect a lot of collateral arrests."
Saying Trump's deportation of illegal migrants will "be ready to launch the day of the inauguration," Homan would not specify how many migrants would be subject to deportation by the end of Trump's second White House term.
"I don't have a number. We want to arrest as many people as we can that are in the country illegally," Homan told Collins. "If you're here illegally, you're not off the table. It's a violation of the law; it's a crime to enter this country illegally."
The border czar said plans include removing illegal migrant parents whose children are U.S. citizens.
"Their child can stay and live with a relative, they can stay with the other parent, or they can take them with them," he said.
"We don't deport U.S. citizens. But they put themselves in the position; we didn't," Homan said. "The bottom line is, having a child in this country does not make you immune from our laws."
Homan also said the Trump administration would bring back mass worksite immigration raids, something President Joe Biden ended.
"Worksite enforcement is coming back in a big way," Homan told Collins.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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