The News
The Republican-controlled Congress is still in the early phases of what the party expects will become a massive tax-and-border bill over the next several months — but that’s not quite soon enough for President Donald Trump’s border czar.
Tom Homan, who works closely with Trump advisers like Steven Miller on the president’s deportation and border security efforts, described deportation efforts as “good” so far during a wide-ranging phone interview with Semafor on Monday. More than 100,000 migrants already have been removed from the US, Homan said, even as court battles over deportation flights continue to stoke scrutiny of the administration’s work.
Even so, Homan is clear that he wants Congress to act fast on new border funding. His work might have gotten extra money already, had Republicans chosen the two-track legislative solution that the Senate initially proposed to advance Trump’s agenda. But the House’s push for “one big, beautiful bill” won out, which leaves Homan still waiting for Capitol Hill.
And even once lawmakers act, he’s still concerned about having the manpower and space to accomplish deportations on the scale Trump wants.
In addition to congressional action, Homan talked about tariffs, the case of a Maryland father whom courts have ordered returned to the US, and more.
The View From Tom Homan
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Shelby Talcott: You’ve talked a little bit before about there being concerns about manpower and space for migrants being detained. Does that remain a concern? And are you going to specific places for additional resources for that?
Tom Homan: Well, it is a concern. We’ve got to have Congress fund this operation. I mean, we’re hoping to get some funding through reconciliation, but now that’s — we got to hope Congress gets that done, because there is a limited amount of funds. And to do more, we got to buy more detention beds. We need more flights. We need more officers. We need more overtime. Bottom line is: The more money we get, the more successful we will be.
After four years of millions of people entering the country illegally, we got a lot of people … but resources matter. We got to hire more agents. And the biggest issue I see right now is the need for more detention beds.
Is it taking too long for Congress to get you border money? Because we’ve heard you supported the two-bill approach that would have conceivably delivered it by now.
I support any approach that gives us the money we need to do this operation. Is it taking too long? Yes, it’s taking too long. I wish they would have passed it by now.
I’ll leave it up to the Hill to do their job. I think the American people think President Trump [has] a mandate — this immigration issue is a number one issue.
There’s also legislation pending in Congress that would eliminate nationwide injunctions, which could make border policy easier for the administration. Is that something you support?
Absolutely support that. I don’t think a single district court judge can make a rule for the entire country. So I think there’s been a war against Trump, and they’re using the activist judges to try to, you know, slow Trump’s agenda down.
I want to ask about the Abrego case. First, do you plan to get involved at all in relations with the Bukele government over this repatriation case?
I guess the State Department does those types of relationships with the countries, so we’ll leave it with the State Department to work with El Salvador on next steps. But this decision is being litigated by DOJ. I’m the border czar, so we’ll let DOJ do their job in litigation.
Are you confident that this guy was a gang member?
Yes.
Have you seen [evidence]? Can you share any specifics [on evidence]?
Evidence in the case file, I believe the El Salvadorian government even agreed that he was an MS-13 member. But the most important thing: The men and women of ICE did a deep dive in these cases…I gotta leave up the men and women of ICE, who are professionals. They do a lot of work on these targets. They’ve done, whether it’s social media, whether it’s criminal investigations, whether it’s immigration records, whether it’s statements from other confidential informants, there’s a myriad of things they look at to make the determination.
So I support that. I haven’t seen no evidence that he’s not.
Are tariffs affecting your deportation efforts at all yet?
No.
Have any countries pushed back on accepting flights, or do you anticipate they will?
No, not that I’m aware of, not yet. And I don’t think they will. We got a strong president, President Trump. He puts Americans first. A lot of countries that weren’t taking back their people are taking back their people because of President Trump.
And if they don’t, we always got a second option. We can remove them to a third nation that’s willing to accept them, and that’s what we’ll do if a country won’t take them back.
You’ve talked, and President Trump has talked a little bit, about potential military action against cartels in Mexico. What would it take for the US to strike against them?
Well, it’s above my pay grade. What I’ve said is — that decision [is] way above me. But I’m saying, with criminal cartels trying to harm our soldiers, trying to harm border patrol agents, we got a strong president who will not hesitate to take action against these cartels. We got Mexican military now on the border, we got US military on the border.
I think together, they will send a strong message to the cartels: If you harm an American soldier, harm an American agent, there will be consequences. So I’ll leave that question up to [Defense Secretary] Pete Hegseth and people above me.