The acting director of Immigration Customs Enforcement asserted that the deportation process of illegal migrants should be run more like a business, saying it should be "like [Amazon] Prime but with human beings," the Arizona Mirror reported.
Todd Lyons made the remarks at the 2025 Border Security Expo in Phoenix on Tuesday. Border czar Tom Homan and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also gave remarks at the two-day summit.
Noem tapped Lyons as ICE acting director last month in an effort to boost lagging deportation numbers.
"We need to get better at treating this like a business," Lyons said in his remarks, saying he wants to see a deportation process "like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings," according to the report.
In his keynote speech, Homan said the Trump administration is leaning on the private sector to help with mass deportations.
"We need to buy more beds, we need more airplane flights and I know a lot of you are here for that reason," Homan told the assembly. "Let the badge and guns do the badge and gun stuff, everything else, let's contract out," according to the report.
Homan also defended use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador.
"That is a law enacted by Congress, and we are using that," Homan said, adding that it "bothers him" that lower court judges have issued injunctions against the policy, which the U.S. Supreme Court this week overruled.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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