President-elect Donald Trump is anticipated to reinstate several of his previous immigration policies upon his return to the White House next month. Tom Homan, the incoming border czar, said in an interview with the Washington Post that family detention centers will be among the revived policies as the next Trump White House seeks to combat unlawful mass migration.
In 2021, President Joe Biden ceased operations for family detention centers; however, Homan informed the publication that illegal migrant families would be detained once more. Even if that means constructing new detention centers.
"We're going to need to construct family facilities," Homan told the publican. "How many beds we're going to need will depend on what the data says."
Homan reaffirmed the administration's commitment to deporting families with US-born children but illegal immigrant parents. He stated that the parents would have the discretion to determine whether the entire family or only the illegal immigrant parents would be deported.
"Here's the issue," Homan said. "You knew you were in the country illegally and chose to have a child. So you put your family in that position."
The incoming border czar, who explained that federal border authorities would prioritize targeting illegal alien criminals for mass deportations, stated that removing other illegal migrants from the country must be done in a humane manner.
"We need to show the American people we can do this and not be inhumane about it," Homan said. "We can't lose the faith of the American people."
Trump's next administration appears to be making border security and illegal immigration a top priority. Homan has been perceived as a hardliner on the issue since being appointed as Trump's border czar. He had advised mayors and governors to refrain from interfering with their efforts to deport illegal migrants and threatened imprisonment if officials attempted to obstruct federal authorities from conducting operations.
Homan previously told the Washington Examiner that federal agents will be going into "sanctuary cities" where there will likely be "a lot of collateral arrests."
"I mean, not priority criminal arrests. We can't get the bad guy in jail," Homan said. "That means we have to go into the communities and find them, and there may be others. We expect a lot of collateral arrests."
