Deportations Will Begin on DAY ONE! | Tom Homan

Transcript:

Rebecca Weber: Hello, I’m Rebecca Weber. Welcome back to AMAC’s Better for America podcast. Today, I’m honored to have a very special guest, a man whose career has been defined by unwavering dedication to public service. A commitment to justice and a deep love for this great nation. Tom Homan is the former acting director of UN Immigration and Customs Enforcement with over three decades of experience in law enforcement and border security. He’s been a prominent voice. on the national security front, immigration policy, and public safety, and has been at the forefront of some of the most challenging debates in modern American history.

So Tom, congratulations on your appointment as Borders Czar for the upcoming Trump administration. This is a critical role at a pivotal time in our nation’s history, from record breaking illegal crossings to the devastation caused by fentanyl trafficking. What do you see as the most urgent crisis facing our border?

and how do you plan to tackle it from day one?

Tom Homan: There’s three things we got to do starting on day one. Number one, we need to secure the border and we know how to do that. We’ve done it before. We had the most secure board of our lifetime under president Trump. So day one, we need to end catch release.

We need to, secure the border. It’s going to, we need to put remaining Mexico back in place. We do some things we need to do with the cooperation of the countries, but day one, we’re going to take steps to secure the board immediately. At the same time, we’ll start a deportation operation nationwide.

And we’re going to target right out of the gate. We were the president, trust me clear. We’re going to prioritize public safety threats, national security threats, right out of the gate. That’s important. And there’s plenty of them to find. We got over 700, 000 illegal aliens with criminal convictions, walking the streets of this country.

We’re going to find them and start deporting them day one. Third priority, the third level of a priority is trying to find over 300, 000 children that were smuggled into this country, smuggled into this country, released to so called sponsors by this administration that they can’t find. So that’s the third rail of priorities, finding these children.

Rebecca Weber: Now, the Mexican government has started to break up migrant caravans that are heading to the U. S. before President Trump takes office on January 20th. Now, when Trump first announced the threat of tariffs, President Claudio Pardo shrugged it off and said that Mexico would Put their own tariffs on American goods, but clearly you can see from the events over the past week that Mexico is taking the tariffs very seriously.

This is something we haven’t seen during the Biden administration. Do you believe that Mexico has changed its stance due to President Trump’s threat of a 25 percent tariff if Mexico doesn’t cooperate with the flow of illegal immigrants into the U. S.?

Tom Homan: I think they’re better. I will see, we’ll see what their actions are right now.

They’re supposedly breaking up migrant caravans. talk is one thing, but actions and others to await, see exactly what to do. A president Trump’s serious. He’s going to put America first, always has that. He got Mexico to do their main Mexico program at the first administration. He got them put military in the Southern Northern border.

He simply wants Mexico to enforce their laws. it’s illegal in Mexico. Just transit through that country. If you’re not a citizen of Mexico to transit through that country, I’ll transit visa, but it’s been done, been, happening. It’s also against law in Mexico to traffic in women and children, but it’s been happening.

So I think president Trump has made it clear to Canada and Mexico that he expects them. To enforce their laws and help secure the border because it’s their responsibility too. So I, look, we already see changes. Mexico has already taken steps, some steps. Canada is already reaching out to meet and talk. so I think president Trump, even though he’s not in office yet, is already having a positive effect once he gets an office and actually is the president of the United States.

I think you’ll see these countries act much quick, much more quickly. to get to an agreement on our borders.

Rebecca Weber: Excellent. Now, I want to talk about something recently that passed in the House. This is the Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act, sponsored by Congresswoman Nancy Mace. It passed in the House with a vote of 266 for, 158 against.

just last Wednesday. Now, every Republican voted for the bill, yet the vast majority of Democrats voted against it. This bill would deport or deem someone inadmissible to the United States who has been convicted of a crime, like a sex offense, domestic violence, stalking, child abuse, that kind of thing.

Tom, why in the world would most Democrats vote against a bill like this? Any normal person would want this bill passed, yet the Democrats want child molesters, rapists, and dangerous criminals to roam our neighborhoods? Can you make heads or tails of that?

Tom Homan: No, I can’t. They lost their minds. for the same reason that President Trump and myself have been clear that the deportation operation is going to prioritize public safety threats.

But I got mayors and governors and sanctuary jurisdictions saying they’re going to put roadblocks up. They’re going to prevent us from doing this. And I’m just shocked at any elected representative, whether it’s a congressperson, a mayor or city councilman or a governor, doesn’t want public safety threats out of our communities.

that’s your number one responsibility is protection of their communities and American citizens. So I don’t get it. I don’t understand is I think politics has taken over common sense. we’re going to force those laws. We’re not going to do without apology if they don’t want to help find to get out of the way.

We’ll do it. But I’m shocked at number of Democrats vote against that. It just doesn’t make sense. it’s no, for, the last couple of ministrations, they’ve been pushing, Hey, concentrate on criminal aliens and leave illegal aliens alone. Now they went further left. I would think after this election.

That, immigration issues and border security is the number one issue that swayed a lot of Americans to vote for this president. Why they would continue to push back on us. I don’t understand it. I’m shocked by it. But, again, we’re going to do it. With or without him.

Rebecca Weber: Very good. Now, for illegals who have children who were born in the UN and have birthright citizenship. Will you deport them altogether, including U. S. born children of illegals? And is there any plan to reexamine birthright citizenship under the 14th amendment?

Tom Homan: Having a U. S. citizen child does not exempt you from laws in this country. If we want to send a message, you can enter this country illegally, which is a crime.

You can ignore federal judgment order deportation after getting due process at great taxpayer expense. If you have a U. S. citizen child, you’re immune from the law. The court order doesn’t mean anything. If that’s the message we’re going to send to the whole world, you’re never going to stop people from immigration.

Because they know now they gotta free out. Come to the United States, have U. S. citizen children, they’re immune from our laws. And, you can’t demand due process. You can’t demand the right to see a judge. You can’t demand the right to claim asylum. At the end of that due process, the judge says you must leave, and you don’t leave.

If that’s going to be the case, then shut down the immigration court. Doesn’t mean anything anymore. Orders don’t mean anything. Take the border patrol off the border because there’s no consequences. So look, I’ve been clear. If you’re in a country illegally and a judge orders your move, you got to leave.

And if you made the decision to have a child, knowing that you’re here illegally, you would put your family, you yourself put yourself in that position, not Tom Holman and not men and women of rice. So you got a decision to make. You can take the child with you. which, parenting one on one, or, you can leave the child with a relative.

that’s going to be the parent’s decision, but there’s going to be no caveat. It says you are, immune from our loss. If you have your assistant child, it’s just, we, you’re never going to fix the border that way. We got to have consequences for violating the laws of this country. And the whole process of due process, spending billions of dollars in this whole process to see a judge and have a judge make a decision.

We can’t throw it out the window, so we’re going to stick to the laws that’s written by Congress. And if they don’t like it, change the law, but we’re going to follow the laws that’s written by Congress that are in federal statute. That’s what we’re going to do.

Rebecca Weber: Now, the majority of attention has been at the southern border, but we all know that there are many illegal migrants that are coming across the northern border through Canada, and it doesn’t seem Canada has been doing much to stem the flow there either.

Is there any plan to secure the flow of migrants entering illegally from the north? I would imagine it would be a little different, than securing the southern border due to the geographical differences, perhaps.

Tom Homan: look, I, Representative from Canada has already contacted me. They want to have a sit down discussion, very interested in securing the border.

I have not had, in depth discussion with them. We’ve got to wait until we’re in power because there are certain, requirements that we have to actually be in the federal government to have these kinds of discussions. But they have reached out to me. They want to have a meeting. So as soon as we’re in, we’ll sit down and meet with them.

They seem like they’re very interested in coming to an agreement on border security because of course, president Trump, threatened them with tariffs also, so they’re coming to the table. I know some of the representatives that met with some of Trump’s team down at Mar a Lago. I wasn’t involved in those discussions yet, but, I, they have reached out to me and they want to sit down.

So I got, I’m very optimistic that they want to help us do the right thing. And at the same time, help themselves.

Rebecca Weber: Very good. Now your appointment as borders are is going to mean that all eyes will be on you as you take charge of border security. So realistically speaking, what do you think really can be accomplished in the first 100 days of the new administration?

Will we see deportations over the first 100 days and the beginnings of completing a border wall?

Tom Homan: You’re going to see deportation starting day one, but I’ve been very frank. What we can accomplish depends on what we have for resources, right? So we know that Congress was talking about a border bill to reconciliation, there’s a one step method, one bill or two bills, or they’re talking about that on the Hill, but I made it clear, we will be as successful as the resources given to us.

So everybody, I always get asked how many deportations are enough. I can’t give you that question. I can’t give you an answer. I don’t know how much money to have. How much money do we have for detention beds? How much money do we have for repatriation flights and cross border removals? How much money do we have to, to, to.

Fun teams to go out and look for these people. So I can tell you day one, we’re going to do what we can with the resources. We have, we’ll give it a hundred percent. We’re going to be off the ground day one, and do what we can with the resources we have. Hopefully Congress will fund us appropriately in the next few weeks, few months, so we can actually get more done, but all this starts day one.

whatever’s there. For money and resources, we’re going to implement day one as much as we can, as fast as you can, as efficient as we can, but we need more money. Then we’ll hopefully Congress again, listen to the November vote, knowing this is the number one issue for American people, they’ll find this appropriately.

Rebecca Weber: One thing I think that many people are overlooking is the fact that many of the people that are coming over to America are from countries like China, Pakistan, Afghanistan. let’s face it, these countries are not friendly to the United States. How vulnerable do you really think we are as a nation for an attack on the inside?

We’ve seen these things happen in the past. Do they present a real imminent threat to America?

Tom Homan: Absolutely. The southern borders, the biggest national security vulnerability I’ve seen in this nation, even the director of the FBI agrees that southern borders is a significant, national security vulnerability.

He says he’s, he’s testified of southern borders and, it’s going to be a gateway for those, from terrorist related countries, not committed to do us harm. he says he, director says he’s more flags never in his career. I’ve said it from day one that this is the biggest national security vulnerability I’ve ever seen.

We’ve had a record number of 3, 500 percent increase in people from on the terrorist watch list being apprehended at the border. We got over 2 million known gotaways, 2 million people we know across the border. We don’t know who they are, where they came from. Border patrols arresting people from 180 different countries.

Some of these countries are a sponsor of terror, so if people don’t think a single one of that two main got away didn’t come from a country sponsoring terror, then they’re obviously not considering the law percentages. the intelligence community has been clear. We know there are, cells in this country, that are just waiting.

I know the FBI and intelligence communities on that, but they’re tracking some, but not tracking others. But like you mentioned China, I don’t think 45, 000 Chinese males, China, without the coordination and approval of the Chinese government, that just don’t happen. yeah, this is a huge net security vulnerability, and that’s why I think President Trump made it a number one concern, that we got to be prepared, and you can’t have Strong national security.

If you don’t have border security, we got to know who’s coming in, what’s coming in, where it’s coming in. So that’s why it’s so important that we secure that border

Rebecca Weber: day one The rise in fentanyl trafficking and cartel activity is really tearing apart communities can you talk about some measures that you might implement to dismantle the criminal networks?

And stop the flow of deadly drugs across our borders. these criminal networks are growing

Tom Homan: When we secure the border, it’s going to help stem the flow of fentanyl. The problem is right now, Borbital has been so overwhelmed the last four years that most of the Borbital agents are no longer on patrol.

They’re in, facilities, making sandwiches and changing, changing diapers, making baby form and taking people to hospitals and whole airports. they’re, they’ve been forced into this humanitarian crisis, which takes most off patrol and which means they’re all through national security duty.

And I’m not exaggerating to say most agents have been pulled from patrol. so once we get back in and secure the border, that means 100 percent of agents around the line doing the national security duty and securing that border, which means less fentanyl escapes between the ports of entry. So I don’t want to get ahead of the president, but I know the president’s going to take some action soon after in the office of other criminal cartels.

I’m not in a position to talk about that right now. I don’t want to get ahead of him. I know what’s coming, but we’ll wait for the president to make those announcements once he’s in.

Rebecca Weber: Excellent. Now states like Texas and Arizona, they’re taking strong measures to address the border crisis. you will, I assume you plan to work with these state governments to create a really unified strategy that reinforces national security.

while respecting state sovereignty, of course.

Tom Homan: Texas, we are, I already have a close relationship with Governor Abbott and we’ll certainly work closer with him to expand upon the success he’s had. We’ve got illegal immigration down almost 80 percent because of his actions, not any actions from this administration.

Arizona, you got a governor there. That’s not a, she’s an open border person herself. So I don’t see much coordination with her, but I see coordination with the sheriffs and the law enforcement there who just passed legislation that they can get involved in immigration enforcement matters. So I’ll be working with law enforcement in Arizona, across the board, whether it’s sheriffs or chiefs, on Securing the board and adding consequences, but Texas a lot better shaped in Arizona right now.

Of course, California, I think there’s very few in that state willing to sit down the table and talk about immigration enforcement. Matter of fact, San Diego just passed a super sanctuary law where it’s even rougher than the sanctuary law from the state. So there’s going to be some, there’s going to be some pushback from states like California and New Mexico and Arizona.

But again, yeah. They can either help or get out of the way because President Trump’s serious about securing the border and we’re serious about the deportation operation. This is going to happen regardless. It’d be nice to partner with these people since they know public safety threats are going to be our priority.

But if they don’t, it’s not going to stop us from doing what we’re doing. It’s going to take us longer. It’s going to be more work. It’s going to be less efficient, but we’re going to do it.

Rebecca Weber: that’s great news for AMAC and AMAC members. We are so passionate. about preserving our nation’s sovereignty and security.

We are so grateful for you, Mr. Tom Homan. Thank you for your candor, your grit, your, deep expertise. AMAC members really do applaud all that you’re doing to protect the integrity of our borders. So thank you so much for being here with me today.

Tom Homan: All right. Thanks for having me.

Rebecca Weber: God bless you.