Tom Homan, who is set to serve as the incoming “border czar,” announced on Monday that President-elect Trump’s administration plans to intensify workplace raids as part of its broader immigration enforcement efforts.
Appearing on “Fox & Friends,” the former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director emphasized that these raids would target both labor and sex trafficking. “Where do we find most victims of sex trafficking and forced labor trafficking? At worksites,” Homan explained to Steve Doocy.
However, many advocates believe that such a strategy will not effectively address trafficking. “He’s conflating the traffickers with the people being trafficked,” said Heidi Altman, the director of federal advocacy at the National Immigration Law Center. She further criticized Homan for using public safety rhetoric to justify harsh tactics that she argues harm families.
Concerns rise over missing court notices for unaccompanied children in immigration system
Homan, who supported the “zero tolerance” policy during Trump’s first term, which led to the separation of over 4,000 children from their parents, clarified that his focus as “border czar” would be on deporting individuals considered “public safety threats” or “national security threats.”
He further stated that foreign nationals who had final deportation orders but had not yet been removed would be prioritized for deportation, referring to them as “fugitives,” even if they have no criminal records.
Homan also claimed that the Biden administration has “lost over 300,000 children that were smuggled into this country by criminal cartels,” echoing a controversial claim made by both Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance.
This assertion referred to a report from the Homeland Security Office of Inspector General published in August, which outlined that 291,000 unaccompanied children had not been issued a notice to appear in court as of May 2024, and 32,000 more had received a notice but failed to show up.
The figures were tied to nearly 450,000 unaccompanied children released by ICE to the Department of Health and Human Services between October 2018 and September 2023, a portion of whom were released during the Trump administration.
Jonathan Beier, the associate director of research and evaluation at the Acacia Center for Justice, addressed the issue, saying, “This is not a ‘missing kids’ problem; it’s a ‘missing paperwork’ problem,” in an October interview with The Associated Press.
