President-elect Donald Trump’s top border advisor Tom Homan says he will instruct authorities to restart the Trump-era policy of detaining families with children.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Homan said immigration authorities may house families in tents near the border, reversing President Joe Biden’s 2021 decision to end family detentions at the request of advocates.
The ‘border czar’ also honed in on birthright citizenship, announcing ICE would not hesitate to deport the parents of U.S. citizens under his leadership, allowing families to decide whether to remove U.S.-born children from the country or face separation.
“You knew you were in the country illegally and chose to have a child. So you put your family in that position,” Homan told the Post, acknowledging that the administration would have to leave families with a choice to separate as they couldn’t legally deport American citizens.
The Trump advisor warned that ICE could change many long-standing practices, including one to prioritize deportations of single adults.
“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.”
Homan, formerly the acting director of ICE, oversaw the first Trump administration’s family separation policy. Many of those families torn apart under the policy were never reunited, despite an official end to the zero-tolerance policy in 2018.
The advisor also said to expect a reversal on many Biden-era tweaks, promising to bring back worksite raids and the “Remain in Mexico” policy for asylum-seekers, which critics say violates international law governing asylum.
Still, Homan attempted to reassure Americans over many of Trump’s darkest promises on the campaign trail.
“I don’t see this thing as being sweeps and the military going through neighborhoods,” he told the Post, despite Trump's vow that it would and Homan’s previous suggestion that local cops would be tasked with deportation support.
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