Transcript: Tom Homan on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Jan. 5, 2025
The following is the full transcript of an interview with Tom Homan, President-elect Donald Trump's border czar, on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" that aired on Jan. 5, 2025.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to Tom Homan. He will serve as Mr. Trump's border czar and he joins us this morning from Naples, Florida. Good morning to you, sir.
TOM HOMAN: Good morning.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Deportations are now at a decade high. They were at the end of 2024. Nearly 300,000 people deported by the Biden administration. The incoming administration has promised the largest deportation operation in history. What's the number? What's the measure of success?
TOM HOMAN: Well, let's talk about this administration. What they claim is a huge deportation number this year. Actually, if you drill in- drill into the numbers, about 80% of those numbers were actually Border Patrol arrests that the Enforcement and Removal Operations of ICE processed and moved back across the border. They weren't interior enforcement arrests. If you look at the historic number of illegal entries the last four years, ICE, Immigration Customs Enforcement, has the lowest number of deportations in the history of the agency. So they're playing a numbers game. Just like they play the numbers game the number of people come across the border. So even though they claim we got the highest number of deportations, look at those deportation, who actually made those arrests, who actually removed those people? It's not ICE.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. It's still a higher number than the Trump administration. But I want to ask you, for the incoming Trump administration, what's- what's the measure? It is not deportations at the border. You're saying you are going to measure success by people who are already internal in the country to deport. That's how you're going to measure it. And what's that figure?
TOM HOMAN: Well, again, let's get the numbers straight. You say they're higher than Trump administration. This isn't about how many get deported, because Trump had illegal border crossings at a 45 year low. So, of course, removal is going to be lower. The number is how many were released into the United States that are now in the country illegally. Under the Biden administration, we have millions of people released in United States who have lost their hearings, and we have millions of people that are released in United States despite a statute saying that you cannot be released in the United States without proper documentation, you shall be detained. So you can compare the numbers of deportations under Trump versus Biden. But is it- when you can when you consider a 45 year low in crossings, of course, the number of deportations's going to be lower because we don't have that- that population to process and deport.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Well, I'm just trying to measure success going forward for day one. Can you help us understand what the plan is? You know, a number of industries in this country hire undocumented workers because they are cheap labor. On day one, are you going to restart raids on work sites, on construction sites?
TOM HOMAN: The- President Trump has been clear, as I've been clear from day one, the president is going to concentrate on public safety threats and national security threats. And have you heard from your previous segments, we have a huge national security issue in this country. The Southwest border has become the biggest national security vulnerability we've seen in this nation. FBI Director Wray agrees with me. We know there's people in this country who oppose the national security threat. They've arrested a record number of people on terrorist watch lists, a 3500% increase in people on the terrorist watch list being arrested at the border. We got over 2 million known gotaways. We know 2 million people crossed the border, weren't arrested, weren't vetted, weren't fingerprinted. So you gotta ask yourself, why did 2 million people pay more to get away? Why didn't they pay less, turn themselves into border patrol, get a free airline ticket to the city of their choice, get a free hotel room, get three meals a day, get free medical care. Why did—
MARGARET BRENNAN: I'm- I'm not disputing that it is a hemisphere wide crisis. We're talking about how you're going to deal with it. That's why I'm asking you, when you say criminals, does that mean you are going to go into al- already existing prisons at local level and deport people who are in those prisons? Are you going to go to work forces? I mean, how do you know where the criminals are, I guess, is the question? And if they're working at a work site, are you going to show up to surprise them?
TOM HOMAN: Well, look, we know where a lot of the criminals are. ICE- ICE does. They're great at this work. We know where some are, but they simply haven't been able to go arrest them, because the Secretary Mayorkas priorities, it handcuffed ICE. So we know where a lot of criminals are, they- they've been- been prevented from arresting that we're going to arrest starting day one. As far as being in jails and prisons, we would love to work in local jails, but sanctuary cities won't allow us into those jails. It's much easier to arrest a public safety threat in the safety and security of a public jail than out in the street, because the officer is safer that way, the alien's safer that way, the community is safer that way. But sanctuary cities who continue to release public safety threats back in the community to the immigrant community, it puts that community at greater risk of crime. And- and- and here's what's going to happen, when we go to the community and find that person, find that criminal alien, it's probably going to be with others. Others we'll have to arrest. So it's not safe for the community, not safe for the officers, not safe for anybody. Let us arrest a bad guy in the jail cell where you chose to arrest somebody and put him in the jail cell because obviously he's a public safety threat.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. What you just said in there, it sounded like you were talking about collateral arrests. So you're going to target people you know are criminals, but if they happen to be living in a house where there are other undocumented people, you're going to sweep them up too. That's what I think you were just saying there. I wonder how you're going to parse out some of those collateral arrests. For example, will Dreamers be protected? Donald Trump has said he wants to work with Democrats to protect them and give them status. That takes a long time in Congress. What do you do in the meantime? How do you make sure they're not caught up in a dragnet?
TOM HOMAN: Look, every- every- every person ICE arrests, they do what we call fugitive operations spreadsheet. They know exactly who they're going to arrest. They know exactly where they're probably likely to find them, and they have a lot of information on that arrest. Other people that are there that may be illegal, they'll handle by case-by-case basis. The concentration- I want to be clear on some public safety threats. If more agents in the jails means less agents in the neighborhood, that's why I'm pleading with sanctuary cities, let us in the jail to arrest the bad guy. That way you're not forcing in the community. So- you know, if you go to an immigrant community and ask them, would you rather have ICE operating in your local jails? Would you want them in the community? What do you think they're going to say? They don't- they don't want bad- bad criminal aliens in their neighborhoods either. So let us work with the jails. Let us work with law enforcement. Sanctuary cities are not safe for this- for the immigrant community, not safe for our officers.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, so that's like, Secure Communities act- kind of- kind of action. But then where do you send people? Because some of these countries, like Venezuela, don't accept deportations right now. Mexico's president indicated her country might be willing to receive non-Mexican migrants who are deported. How does that work? Does the U.S. pay Mexico to then ship those people off somewhere else?
TOM HOMAN: Well, first of all, we got President Trump coming to the Oval Office, and he's proven during his first administration, his- his leadership on illegal immigration was a game changer, because, for instance, El Salvador wouldn't take back MS-13 members when I was the ICE Director. It took President Trump 48 hours to get El Salvador to take back their criminal aliens into their prisons. And Mexico didn't want to do the Remain in Mexico program. But President Trump was able to get Remain in Mexico- Remain in Mexico established in Mexico. He was able to get Mexico put military on the southern and northern border. President Trump's a strong president. This administration has not forced these countries to take them back, and we have what we call third safe country. We already have countries talking about taking back people from other countries if- if for instance, Venezuela don't take their people back. There's other ways we can do it. There's other countries be willing to accept them. We're hoping that President Trump will work with Venezuela and like he did with Mexico and El Salvador, and get these countries take them back. If they don't, they're still gonna be deported. They're just gonna be deported to a different country. We're not gonna be held up on removing public safety trust in this country. We gotta put- we gotta put the safety of the American people first. We've had too many young women murdered and raped and burned alive by members of Venezuelan gangs. They need to be a priority under this administration. They're gonna be a priority starting day one, and they will be deported.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We will stay tuned for the details. Borders czar Tom Homan, thank you for your time. We'll be back in a moment.
