By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-19 18:11:27 | Updated at 2024-12-20 01:46:07
7 hours ago
Incoming border czar Tom Homan got into a tenuous back and forth with CNN's Kaitlan Collins over President-elect Donald Trump's deportation plans, which he says will begin 'day one.'
Collins, 32, pressed Homan, 63, in a Wednesday night interview on his plans to potentially deport migrant parents who have U.S. citizen, wondering if the families will be split up.
Homan, the former acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump's first term, replied that would be up to that parents, but made clear what Trump's policies come January 20, 2025, will be.
'If you are in the country illegally, and you've got orders for deportation, were going to arrest you, detain you and remove you,' he responded.
'Having a child in this country does not make you immune to our laws.'
He argued that if the parents were found to be in the country illegally, had court orders to be removed and were evading deportation, they need to be held accountable in accordance with current laws.
Letting parents stay because their children were born in the U.S. means 'the court order doesn't mean anything anymore,' Homan reasoned.
'Then what kind of message are we sending to the whole world?' he shot back at Collins.
CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins interviewed President-elect Donald Trump's incoming border czar Tom Homan on Wednesday about the details of the Republican's deportation plans
Migrants approach a wire fence guarded by the Texas National Guard in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on December 18, 2024, in their attempt to cross into the United States to seek asylum on International Migrants Day
A group of migrants wait at a border point in Juarez City, Chihuahua, Mexico, 18 December 2024. On International Migrants Day, the Texas National Guard fired pepper balls to disperse a group of more than 150 migrants, mostly from Central and South America, who were deceived on social networks into thinking that they would be allowed to pass through the border wall, in northern Mexico
The CNN host then inquired about what happens to U.S.-born children if their parents get deported.
'Would you put the child in foster care if there's not a relative?' she asked.
The incoming border czar answered: 'We don’t deport U.S. citizens. But they put themselves in the position; we didn’t.'
'A majority American thinks it's the right thing to do. A vast majority of Americans think public safety threats are here illegally, should be removed.'
When asked how many people he is prepared to remove, Homan responded it depends on how much money Congress approves for deportation operations and the agency's tasked with carrying them out.
'It all depends on the funding I get from the hill,' he said. 'I don't know what the budget is.'
Later Collins asked him how many deportations he would like to achieve in his first year.
Homan said he wants to arrest as many people as he can with the resources they have, and added that there are millions of fugitives within the U.S. who are pending arrest.
Donald Trump 's border czar Tom Homan and Tucker Carlson have suggested a slew of 'rich, white, liberal neighborhoods' where migrants could be sent
Over 10.5 million migrants have been encountered illegally entering the U.S. since 2021, federal data shows
'We want to arrest as many people as we can that are in the country illegally,' he said. 'We want to arrest every criminal, every gang member ... If you're here illegally, you're not off the table.'
Earlier in the week Homan spoke to Tucker Carlson about the possibility of sending migrants to 'rich, white' neighborhoods.
Carlson asked the incoming border czar on his X show Wednesday night: 'Is there anyway to move millions of Haitians into rich, white, liberal, neighborhoods?'
'The people who did this are rich, white liberals in the United States who hate themselves and the country and to punish it, they invited all these people illegally from failed countries but they can't stand the idea of living near these people because they're racist,' Carlson said.
Homan responded: 'We absolutely could do it. Martha's Vineyard did it!'
Martha's Vineyard, in particular, was one of the many liberal enclaves migrants were sent via bus by Republican governors in an attempt to ease the burden of their arrival on their states, a point Homan celebrated.
