Migrant families will face a return to detention centers once President-elect Donald Trump takes office, and parents of U.S.-born children will not be exempt from deportation, according to Tom Homan, who is set to take on the role of “border czar” in the incoming administration.

“Here’s the issue. You knew you were in the country illegally and chose to have a child. So you put your family in that position,” Homan remarked during an in-depth interview reported by The Washington Post on Thursday.

Homan revealed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to house parents with children in temporary tent facilities, much like the ones used by U.S. border authorities during times of immigration surges. The decision will also place the onus on parents with U.S.-born children to decide whether to leave the country with their whole family or to separate, leaving their American-born children behind.

In 2021, President Joe Biden halted family deportations and shut down three ICE residential centers that were used to detain families. Homan, however, emphasized that once Trump assumes the presidency and large-scale deportations are reintroduced, the government will need to establish new facilities for families. “How many beds we’re going to need will depend on what the data says,” he commented.

Homan, who previously served as acting director of ICE during Trump’s first term, will not be in charge of overseeing the agency’s operations as the border czar. Instead, he will collaborate closely on immigration issues with South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, whom Trump has chosen to lead the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE.

During his tenure as ICE director, Homan was a key figure behind the “zero tolerance” policy that resulted in the separation of over 4,000 children from their parents after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. However, over his 34-year career with the Border Patrol and ICE, he has witnessed significant shifts in public opinion about immigration enforcement, and he acknowledged the need to demonstrate to the American people that “we can do this and not be inhumane” in executing mass deportations.

In 2012, Homan was a senior official at ICE when the agency deported more than 400,000 individuals. However, he refrained from committing to any specific deportation target now, stating that without knowing what resources will be available, setting such a target would set him up for “disappointment.”

Trump has proposed deploying National Guard troops to assist with deportations, but Homan stressed that only trained law enforcement personnel are authorized to make immigration arrests. “I don’t see this thing as being sweeps and the military going through neighborhoods,” Homan clarified, noting that the deportation efforts will focus on individuals with criminal histories.

Additionally, Homan announced the launch of a separate initiative aimed at locating more than 300,000 young immigrants who he and Trump’s allies believe are unaccounted for. Legal experts, however, contend that these individuals are not truly missing but are simply not responding to government caseworkers.

Homan conceded that most of the young individuals are likely with parents or other family members, but he insisted on tracking them down. “I think some of these children will be in forced labor, and some will be in the sex trade,” he stated. “I think some will be perfectly fine. We just want to make sure.”

Homan also advocated for placing parents who entered the country illegally, then later sought out and reclaimed their children from custody, into deportation proceedings. “I’m not saying take them into custody,” Homan clarified. “We’ll let them get the child and put them in proceedings with the child, so they can go to court and plead their case as a family.”

{Matzav.com}