CNN
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President-elect Donald Trump announced Sunday evening that Tom Homan, who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during his last administration, will be in charge of the nation’s borders.

“I am pleased to announce that former ICE Director, and avid border patrol officer, Tom Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration in charge of our nation’s borders (“The Border Czar”), including, but not limited to, the Southern Border, the Northern Border, all Maritime and Aviation Security,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social late Sunday.

The president-elect added that there is “no one better at guarding and controlling our borders” and that Homan “will be in charge of all deportations of illegal aliens back to their countries of origin.”

The former acting ICE director contributed to Project 2025, the sweeping conservative blueprint for the next Republican president, which Trump distanced himself from during his campaign.

CNN reported earlier Sunday that Trump was expected to tap Homan for a czar-like role.

CNN has reached out to Homan for comment.

Immigration was a cornerstone of Trump’s 2024 campaign, and he repeatedly promised to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

In a recent interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Homan argued that “families can be deported together” when asked about Trump’s promise to implement mass deportations immediately after taking office. He also argued that that effort would be targeted, although exact plans for how it would be implemented — and how much it would cost — remain to be seen.

“It will not be a massive cleanup of neighborhoods. No concentration camps are built. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous,” Homan told CBS.

In a sign of his influence in Trump’s orbit, Homan spoke at the Republican National Convention in July.

“I have a message to the millions of illegal aliens that Joe Biden has released into our country in violation of federal law: You better start packing now,” Homan said from the stage in Milwaukee. “You’re damn right.”

A career law enforcement officer, Homan served as the public face of the first Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to ramp up immigration enforcement before retiring in 2018. He served in this role temporarily from the beginning of the Trump administration, despite never being confirmed by the Senate. , because he was already the deputy considered for the position.

Homan often took the microphone — including during White House briefings — to defend his agents’ arrests of undocumented immigrants, to call for stronger enforcement and to attack “sanctuary city” policies. At one point he told Congress that undocumented immigrants should “be afraid.”

Homan also oversaw an immigration system that placed record numbers of immigrant children in U.S. custody. In September 2017, Homan said at a public event that his office would arrest undocumented immigrants who came forward to care for children, something previous administrations avoided.

“You can’t hide in the shadows,” Homan said at a border security event in Washington, adding that parents should stand “shoulder to shoulder” with their children in court. ‘We are going to at least litigate the parents in immigration proceedings. …Is that cruel? I don’t think so.”

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

Tal Kopan, Eli Watkins, Catherine E. Shoichet and Jack Forrest contributed to this report.