US immigration authorities will resume the controversial policy of putting families with children in detention centres as part of a drive to deport undocumented immigrants, the incoming Trump administration’s ‘border czar’, Tom Homan, has said.
Homan, regarded as the “architect” of the widely vilified family separation policy applied to undocumented immigrants in the first Trump administration, also said officials would not hesitate to deport parents whose children were American citizens because they had been born in the US.
It would be left to parents to decide whether they want to depart the country as a family, or leave their children in the US, thus splitting up their families.
“Here’s the issue,” Homan said in an interview with the Washington Post. “You knew you were in the country illegally and chose to have a child. So you put your family in that position.”
He said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials would hold parents with children in soft-sided tent structures similar to those used to handle immigration surges at the US southern border.
“We’re going to need to construct family facilities,” Homan said. “How many beds we’re going to need will depend on what the data says.”
The Biden administration ended family detention in 2021, closing three facilities with about 3,000 beds that Ice had operated. The closures followed criticism from immigration advocates and paediatricians, who warned that such conditions were harmful for children.
Homan’s vow to revive it is his clearest signal yet of how he plans to implement president-elect Donald Trump’s repeated pledge to deport an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants.
He said the Trump administration’s policy would be to deport families together but acknowledged that the government lacked the legal power to deport children who were born in the US – thus putting the onus on whether to split up a family on the immigrant parents.
He added: “We need to show the American people we can do this and not be inhumane about it. We can’t lose the faith of the American people.”
In Trump’s first presidency, during which he was acting director of Ice, Homan was credited with being the driving force behind a separate “zero tolerance” policy towards migrants that saw 4,000 children separated from their parents after they crossed the southern border into the US.
Homan told the Post that he was unwilling to commit to a target number of deportations until he knew what resources will be available to expand Ice’s capacity, adding: “I’ll be setting myself up for a disappointment.”
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As White House border czar – a position that does not require Senate confirmation – Homan will not have direct control over Ice, which will be under the ambit of Kristi Noem, Trump’s nominee for homeland security secretary, if she is confirmed.
While Trump and senior advisers have spoken of using national guard troops in carrying out deportations, Homan said only trained law enforcement officials would be authorised to make immigration arrests, with military personnel restricted to transportation and other support services.
“I don’t see this thing as being sweeps and the military going through neighbourhoods,” he said. Instead arrests would “targeted” at those with criminal records.
He has previously vowed to jail local Democratic mayors and officials who seek to block deportations.
Worksite raids by Ice officials, ended by the Biden administration, would be revived, Homan said. “We haven’t really worked out the plan for worksite enforcement. We know that employers are going to be upset.”
He also said he would urge the new administration to reintroduce the “remain in Mexico” programme – also ditched by Biden – which required asylum seekers to wait outside the US while their applications were being considered.