The former acting director of ICE has more than 30 years of law enforcement experience.
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Tom Homan, his former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to serve as the incoming administration’s “border czar.”
The position, which does not require Senate confirmation, puts Homan in charge of the nation’s borders and maritime and aviation security.
He will also oversee “all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin,” Trump wrote in a Nov. 10 post on his Truth Social platform.
“I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders,” the president-elect said, adding that he is confident Homan will do “a fantastic, and long-awaited for, job.”
Here’s what we know about the former immigration official.
A Career in Law Enforcement
A native of West Carthage, New York, Homan earned his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute in Marcy.
He started his law enforcement career as a police officer in New York. He then worked for 33 years in immigration enforcement, starting as a Border Patrol agent in Campo, California, in 1984.
Homan went on to spend 20 years as a special agent investigating the organizations that smuggle immigrants into the United States under the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service before it became the Department of Homeland Security.
He then rose through the ranks of ICE to lead the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations under President Barack Obama for eight years before his appointment as acting ICE director under Trump.
ICE sits under the Department of Homeland Security and it is tasked with cross-border crime, human trafficking, deportations, and more.
The agency has two main branches under it—Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement and Removal Operations.
Out of Retirement
Homan’s stint as acting ICE director began on Jan. 30, 2017, after former director Sarah Saldaña stepped down.
By Samantha Flo
