American Thought Leaders - EXCLUSIVE: Tom Homan Reveals Next Targets and How Many Missing Immigrant Children Have Been Found

Episode Date: September 26, 2026

In this episode, I’m sitting down with Tom Homan. A career law enforcement officer, he’s served as a cop, border patrol agent, federal investigator, and acting ICE chief, and worked under six presidents from both sides of the aisle.Now as the White House border czar, he’s facilitating the most aggressive transformation of immigration enforcement that America has ever seen.Monthly deportations have hit record highs. Enforcement officers are prioritizing high-risk offenders, with over 60 percent of arrests involving individuals with criminal convictions or active felony charges, Homan says.And the pushback has been fierce. Homan says assaults on ICE officers are up 1,600 percent. Threats are up 6,000 percent.We discuss: What new initiatives or priorities can we expect to see in the coming weeks and months? How is the Trump administration dealing with nationwide court injunctions? How is the administration approaching a major China-related loophole on one of its island territories? And how many unaccompanied minors that were unaccounted for in the system have since been found? How many were sex trafficked or used as forced labor?Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Talk about a sniper in Dallas trying to shoot agents. They shoot into a band of aliens and kill two of them. Outside of Dallas, a group attacks one of our ice facilities and shoots a cop in the neck. There's been more shootings than any time I can remember in the history of the agency. Trump's border Tsar Tom Homan says assaults on ice officers are up 1,600 percent. It's a lot of the hateful rhetoric feeding the frenzy. A career law enforcement officer who's worked for six presidents, Homan is now overseeing the most aggressive transformation of immigration enforcement that America has ever seen.

As of last week, we're just over 157,000 children found. The majority of the children were perfectly safe. They're with their parents hiding out. But many, too many, were victims of sex trafficking, enforced labor. In this episode, he reveals how DHS is closing a major China-related loophole. and what new initiatives to expect in coming months. I just had lunch with Lincoln Riley's parents last week. Listen to the videotape.

She fought for her life for 17 minutes. She fought for every breath. That little girl didn't want to die. This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Yanya Kellick. Tom Holman, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders. Well, thanks for having me. So you've reported over 300,000 unaccompanied children. or the Office of the Inspector General technically has reported that,

that we're unaccounted for. I want to find out how many have been found now in their status, just kind of an update. This is an area of great interest to our viewers. Well, under Biden administration, just under a half of May and were smuggled in the country. And HHS was very proud of the fact they released them quickly. They weren't in detention very long.

But the problem is they released them quickly because the sponsors weren't properly vetted. So out of that half a million children, they lost track of just under. I think the number is like 296, almost 300,000 children, they lost track of. When you say lost track of, they weren't responding to Collins, they weren't responding to any communications, they weren't hearing from them where they're supposed to be checking in. And they weren't looking for them, which is, it's just amazing. So when President Trump came in office, the first day President Trump called me and asked me to come back,

he asked me do three things to secure the border run deportation operation and find these kids that's three things he told me wanted me to oversee so we started looking with a hundred thousand children and i told president trump that on that phone call securing the border no problem we've done it before we can do that again mass deportation no problem because we got to target rich environment because the millions of people that came across by we can get that done the children would be the most difficult because they'll be tough to find because we'd have to count on the the digital footprint of the sponsors the information the sponsors provided which we know were them good um we can find you we can find me we own homes you own cars we have credit cards we can find us because we all have a digital footprint children don't so when we finally got back in we started pulling the information look at these kids a lot of the information the addresses supermarkets parking lots churches a lot of the IDs prevented were wrong names so um we knew that'd be difficult. But under President Trump's leadership, as of last week, we're just over 157,000 children found. We got more to find. Over 20 have died. Some from natural causes, some from drug

overdoses, some from violence. So we still got, you know, 140,000 right around to find. Now, a lot of these children that we're still looking for, I've aged out. They're 18, 19 years old, but as I told the president, just because they're 18 and 19 doesn't mean they're not in forced labor or sex trafficking. So we're going to keep running down every one of these leads until we find them. And when we finish with all the leads we have, we're going to do it again. So we're not giving up. President Trump's promised that we're going to look at this until the last day of the administration. And American people have my word that we're going to do that.

There was this nine-year-old girl that you spoke with that was trafficked on her way in. And I just, do you have any, have you spoken with her again? Do you tell me any more about her? All the border work I've done in 40 years, I've thought to many victims of smuggling and trafficking. And there was one time I spoke to little girls who was sexually assaulted making that journey as many years ago. I never forgot about her. Illegal immigration is not a victimist crime. You don't come across the border.

without approval and paying off the cartels. Cartels control plazas. If you're going to run, if an alien smuggling group is going to run a bunch of aliens through a specific plaza, they better have permission and they better pay the fee. So a lot of women and children are sexually assaulted making that journey. The last study I saw, there's several nonprofits

to studies and said that up to 31% of women who make that journey get sexually assaulted. And that's 31% of women that admitted it. So we both know numbers probably higher, right? But the nine-year-old little girl would go, yeah, it broke my heart. I mean, that little girl's never going to be the same again. And I stuck in my mind. There's a lot of things that stuck in my mind over 40 years.

That makes me who I am today. And why I fight so hard? I mean, I just left an event victims of crime, including Angel Moms and Dads. Angel Moms and Dad is the number one reason I came back the second time. out of retirement for President Trump, that's why I fight because I've seen some terrible things in my career. I've seen a lot of suffering. But children, I'm a father, and that's why I fight so hard.

And that nine-year-old girl from years ago is the reason I fight hard. Because I know terrible things happen on that border. I know, you know, there's a lot of sexual assaults as a part of the fee for them to cross you across that border. So it's something I'm deeply concerned with and one of the reasons I fight so hard. I'm still around after 65 years old, I'm still in the game. I don't plan on leave it anytime soon. I've heard you tried to retire a number of times, but it hasn't worked out somehow.

Well, you know, President Trump asked me twice. You know, I retired the first time as the ICE director. And the day of my retirement party in those January, I'm a year. I had a great retirement party, hundreds of people there. I was the saddest day in my life. I say that because when you carry a badge and gun for 30 years, it's part of who you are. And I knew that day was over. I was no longer going to be a special agent.

I was no longer going to be the ICE director. I was going to be civilian and Tom Holman. So it was a bad day. I had my wife, I had my family with me. At the end of the ceremony, I was actually shaking hands of people that were coming. And my chief of staff, who was my chief of staff, so I had an emergency phone call in my office, my empty office, because I already boxed my stuff. up there sitting in my garage. This is on a Friday because I already started, I already signed

the contract of the company, so I was going to start my new job Monday. So my office was empty. I went up and took the phone call and was Secretary John Kelly. And he asked me since President Trump would like you to stay and run the agency because I was third in command at the time. And I told him that was bad timing because I just retired. He advised me not officially because he hasn't signed the paperwork, it's on his desk. So I asked for the weekend to talk to my family about it and Monday I said, yeah. us do it. I came back. The second time was Trump 47. He called me. I think I was the first guy he called. At least that's what he told me. Again, I was out to dinner with my wife,

sitting at a restaurant, some phone sitting on the table, it rings, and she looks at it, says, Polis. And she looked at him, she goes, oh no. You want you to go back. And I went outside to the phone call, and we had the conversation I told you about. Come back and help me do these three things and I didn't hesitate because I wanted in the fight after watching four years of what they did to the most secure border in history of this nation and unsecured it on purpose which caused massive fat and all-kill Americans called sex trafficking all-time high record number no-inpected terrorists arrested at the border I couldn't wait to come back and so when President Trump asked me I didn't hesitate came back

going back to the angel parents just for the benefits of the viewers that that might not know, these are parents who have lost children to illegal aliens in some way. Tell me, you just came from an event you told me. We're at a top lance, Attorney General, held an advance for victims of crime. And a lot of families there, well, they had testimony for four or five victims.

And I think three of the victims were parents who buried their children. because they were killed by an illegal alien. A lot of angel families were in the audience. I recognize many of them. I've met and I'm friends with them. I just had lunch with Lincoln Riley's parents last week down in Georgia.

So I'm very connected to them. That's the number one reason I fight so hard. So we just had an event. And you know what? No matter how many times you hear their stories, you can't you can't absorb it without emotion because my worst nightmare is to bury one of my children and they've been through that and what makes it so difficult it was a totally preventable crime if they weren't here if the border wasn't wide open if we didn't have sanctuary cities because

many of the victims these angel moms and dads the illegal ailing that took your child's life was arrested in a sanctuary city, but rather than calling ice and honoring our retainer that we placed with them, they released them back to the street and they killed their child. So it's difficult days. Every time I do this, it's difficult to hear those stories, but the reason I'm late to this interview by 45 minutes, because they want pictures, they want a hug, and I won't leave, I won't leave the event until I thought to every angel mom and dad in that room. They deserve the attention of this administration, and I give them all the attention I can give them.

And I promise them, I promise every one of them today that I'm going to fight for them, I'm going to keep fighting for them. Even after I retire, I'll find something. I'm going to leave the administration to help them. I'll be involved some way somehow because they live my nightmare. Of course, I know that one of your priorities was to deport the criminal illegal illegal and detainment. and deport, at least at the beginning, that was the case. Just to finish up this question around the children that were trafficked, what about these sponsors of unknown, you know, unknown sponsors?

Presumably some of them are criminals, presumably some of them are traffickers. What can you tell us about that? The ones that we ask, you know, can improve their, you know, either involve with trafficking or forced labor or misrepresentation. We prosecuted them. I mean, a lot of these, or multiple sponsors, you have a sponsor that had 22 children. How about that happen? Right.

And when we go find them, most kids aren't there anymore because they've been, you know, sold off a bit of somebody else. We hold these people. We can prove a case against we hold them accountable and we prosecute them. But not all these children, like say, the majority of the children were perfectly safe. They're with their parents hiding out. They don't want the immigration consequences. But many, too many, were victims of sex trafficking, forced labor. Do you have a sense of how many were trafficked of these that you know?

I don't have the numbers offhand, HSIs and charged that, but, you know, one's too many. But there's been numerous victims of, we found some working, not going to school, working on chicken ranches or, you know, marijuana grow firearms. or forced in the labor, not being paid, not going to school, being sold off. And we've rescued many that are victims of sex trafficking. They're involved with, you know, pornographic, you know, movies and being sold for sex. And in the greatest country on earth, it's hard to you believe this stuff happens, or what it does.

But it's a priority of this administration. And President Trump, when he came in, he says, you know, we're going to do mass deportations. he said, his instructions were, but we're going to prioritize the public safety threats and national security threats. And I've been saying for almost two years, because some people say, wow, you got to arrest illegal aliens too. Yeah, we know that. Just because you prioritize the public safety threat, it doesn't mean you forget about everybody else. But if you have a child predator here and someone that overstayed the visa here, you can get him first. Then you get him.

So right now the number is about 60 40, 60%, 60, 64% of everybody we arrest is a criminal. The other 40% are non-criminals. I like that percentage. I would rather have more criminals than non-crimals because they're the biggest threat to our communities in our neighborhoods. So I like that. I like that mix. So just to be clear, about 64% are people that committed criminal acts and the others are either overstays? Our definition of criminals, you got a criminal conviction or you're pending criminal charges,

which means we found them into jail or a jail, which most likely means you're not a car boy. If they're arrested for a crime or convicted of crime, we classify them as criminals. The other four of a side of non-criminals, but of models non-criminals are gang members who don't have a criminal history or have not yet been charged of the crime. Some are traffickers that have not yet been prosecuted. So I like the mix. I think that's good. People say, well, you know, you need to arrest more in that crum.

Well, we are. I mean, there's a lot of false information. People want us to do more. I want to do more. I mean, in June and this year, ICE arrested more illegal aliens than any time in the history of the agency. They broke an historic record in June. July, they broke June.

August, they broke both months records. So, in August, I mean, August, they got to break. very new historic record. September's looking pretty damn good. So they're breaking records every month. So we are arresting a record number of illegal aliens. And like I said, the percentage is about 60, 40. So we're making a difference.

And I want more, but we got a few thousand more that are coming to the academy. You can put on the street. But people need to understand. We're hitting a record arrest, historic records. Despite the fact, we have over one. hundred nationwide injunctions filed by radical judges that don't want to detain and deport people we have over 87,000 habeas cases where some radical judge says you can't detain this person then of course they're

released now we got to find them all over again I mean there's in sanctuary cities of course make it more difficult so despite the sanctuary cities despite the habeas cases despite the nationwide injunctions put in place by radical judges, ICE is still breaking historical records. As DOGA continues to sue sanctuary cities, I'm confident we win, and that's going to open up the aperture more. As we bring a couple more thousand agents online, it's going to increase. So the numbers are historic now.

I expect bigger numbers next year. I mean, and this is also in the context secretary, Mullen, just talked about a 1600% increase in violence against ICE operators. 600% actual assaults the threats against ice officers are up over 6,000 600s are actual attacks assaults the threats are up 6,000 vehicles assaults are up 1,300 percent we're using vehicles as weapons and I blame a lot of that on the misinformation being fed by some media to the American people is constant lies after and i don't use that term lightly lies lies lies ice is arresting five-year-olds ice is arresting people in churches i s arrested somebody out of hospital

or an elementary school since president trumpsman in the oval office i'd dare anybody to give me one case give me a name in a place where ice has arrested anybody in an elementary school has a happen inside of a hospital never happened inside of a church never happened the only people that violated the sanctity of church was don lamin in that group right so but they keep saying it let's talk about you know delaney hall the most reading you know up in new jersey the governor the elected mayor members of congress said their aliens are being mistreated in that facility which calls protests which calls violence outside facility, said there's hunger strikes. People weren't getting their medicine, being abused. It all started because ICE arrested a father that went to the store to buy diapers

for an infant child. We locked them in there, and he started all the protests. I went up there unannounced. I sat in the cafeteria with the aliens and ate the same thing they ate. There's nothing wrong that food there was never a hunger strike there are some aliens that weren't eating in the cafeteria because they're buying food out of the commissary which are that's your right to do no one missed the meal no one was out of hunger strike no one was missing her medication and the person the the victim that people who called it the alien a victim was just buying diapers for his infant child was arrested it was all I we took custody of him and a

only jail because he was in there under charges of domestic violence. But the false story is being pushed by the media. Like just lately the shooting in Austin, you know, well, he was legally here. He had a work permit. He's just delivering food. He was one of those drivers that delivered food. And we shot him in the back and he's crippled and we won't give him medical attention. No. He was an illegal alien with a final order from a judge says he must be deported. We were trying to arrest the deportment.

He fled. We had lights and the sirens. You know, we know what he's. Do he fled? And, you know, he was shot. But these constant lies, they obviously some see some future political benefit of attacking ice and lying about ice. I think it's going to help in the future election.

But the lie, I'm constantly, I spend most of my time on media interviews, shutting down the lies. Is ice perfect? No. You know, there's a 30,000-man organization. The mistakes will be made. But when mistakes are made, they're held accountable. But to vilify them every day for simply enforced the law.

And they're getting vilified members of Congress. And I've told Congress this from day one. If you think ICE is a Nazi group for enforcing the immigration law, what's that make you? You wrote the law. Which is enforcing laws you wrote. So, you know, so I think, and I said to begin this administration, about the third month in this administration,

and all the hateful rhetoric is coming out. And I said at the time, and I wish I was wrong, that the hateful rhetoric continues, there's going to be violence and there's going to be bloodshed. And sure enough, we see that. You know, talk about, you know, a sniper in Dallas trying to shoot agents. They shoot into a band of aliens and kill two of them. I mean, outside of Dallas,

a group attacks one of our ice facilities, shoots a cop in the neck. You know, so I blame a lot of this on the hateful rhetoric being pushed by it. not only mayors and governors but members of congress and you know and i'll keep calling that out i think that's one reason when you when you compare ice to the nazis and what the nazis did that emboldened some people on the far left and the ones who already had a loose crew emboldens them it encouraged them to take an action so i just wish they stopped if the hateful rhetoric would stop the masks will come off if the hateful rhetoric would stop they'd be

less tragedy. I truly believe that. Because now people are emboldened, ICE, they're going to hear ICE isn't a real law enforcement agency. ICE are Nazis. They're not really cops. So now people are not complying with them. I suppose them more, they'll either run, they'll ram them with the car, because they feel like they don't have to comply with ICE because they're hearing from members of Congress even, the ICE isn't a real law enforcement agency. You got people like AOC having, you know, teams meetings on the internet telling people she calls it educating people on their rights she teaches me how not to comply with ice so with all this going against ice I am not surprised of the tragedies it's unfortunate I don't want to see anybody

hurt I don't want to see the officers hurt I don't want to see the alien targets hurt I just want to force a law but until his heiferetic stops it isn't over when it comes to violence. How would you respond to someone that, for example, understands that this Nazi moniker is some sort of, you know, gross hyperbole or whatever and is unhappy with the, how many illegal immigrants are in the country, but would say something like, well, you know,

shooting someone just because they're fleeing, that seems like an excessive force for this kind of an enforcement operation. They don't show it like they're fleeing. The policies, you don't, use deadly force and lights your life's in danger or life of an incident third party is in danger that's when ice can use lethal for us ice have been given you know tools to you know try to get the person to comply without use of deadly force mean there's a continuum they're training continuum what force you

make that person comply I mean they just talked about ice was you know ordering gloves that would give electric shock people had to fit about it they're a taser handheld taser. Law enforcement calls our country carry tasers. That's just one more tool to make someone compliance. So they don't have to go zero to a hundred and go to shooting, right? So they're trained on using the least force necessary to get compliance. So whether it's, whether it's, you know, taser, whether it's, you know, hands on, the last thing we want to do is go to a gun. And like I say, And again, the agency isn't innocent. We've had a couple of agents that are indicted for lying about incidents, and they've been indicted.

So, you know, one of the first thing I did when I got to Minneapolis was increased the internal affairs staff to make sure people that aren't doing things right. We hold accountable because we can't lose the faith in the American people that we're not doing things right. And when we don't do things right, we need to show American people we're holding these people accountable. So that's what we're trying to do. You know, and just, you know, to your point, a pretty significant number of the people these agents have to go after or have a criminal record or are, you know, thought to be criminals by, pulled by law and other law enforcement. I mean, it feels like a pretty, you know, a pretty dangerous operation. I've been an ICE agent. I was a Borderal agent.

First of all, I was a police officer, then became a Borderal agent, that I was an ICE agent for many years. It's a dangerous job. And for any member of Congress wants to attack them, I just want to put them in that position. I tell you what, I'll give you a badge, I'll give you a gun, I'll put a cabular vest on you. I want you to go arrest that guy who doesn't want to be arrested, who's not going to let you arrest him,

and he's wanted for manslaughter. He's a gang member. He's with MS-13 or, you know, 18th Street gang. Go arrest him. How many have the guts to go do that? I don't have the guts to do that. So, you know, it's already a dangerous job, but with the threats high as they are, the threat's dangerous. There's been more shootings than any time I can remember in the history of the agency.

And I say, again, it's a lot of the hateful right of feeding the frenzy, making people think, you know, ice are the bad guys. You have a right not to comply. And when they don't comply and something happens, right away they attack the ICE agent. with just some boldens more non-compliance. Again, I want to be clear, because people have mixed my words up on purpose, and homeless says, if you don't comply, you should be killed. Never said that, never will. I'm just saying non-compliant.

If you would simply comply, there would be less tragedies. You know, you can take judicial action. You can sue, do whatever you want to do. But I know if I get pulled over by law enforcement, I'm going to comply. That's what it should be. If you think that stop or that interrogation or that, that, you know, that meat was unconstitutional or violation of your civil rights and take action, but you don't not comply.

I just think that's a dangerous role to go down. It just sounds like you have a pretty high-pressure job, given everything. Yeah, that's an easy way to put it. Do you have like a day that you remember that was particularly, like a particularly rough one? Yeah, every time I talk to an engine mom and dad, it's a bad day. I'm a dad. I got two boys. My worst nightmare is burying a child.

And when you talk to engine mom and dad whose hearts are broken, lives will never be the same. And you couldn't help them because the government failed them. because they didn't secure the border. The government failed them because New York City decided not to honor our detainers and release criminals to the street. It's just, it's just their child is dead because the system failed them. Either the federal government or the city government or the state government failed them. Like I said earlier, a lot of these ancient moms and dads, the murderer of their children,

were in custody before they committed that act. but because of sanctuary policy, because of politics, back on the street. I just had lunch with Lake and Riley's parents last week. The person that murdered their daughter and listened to the videotape, she fought for her life for 17 minutes. Listen to that tape. She fought for every breath. That little girl didn't want to die.

She fought hard. imagine being her parents now that guy was in custody in New York City for a crime and he was released rather than caught ice that's a bad day it's a bad day when I know more officers get hurt for doing the job

I get a lot of bad days but I get a lot of good days because I think when ICE is out there making record arrests of criminal aliens we're making this country safer I think neighborhoods are safer crime rate is on all-time low because of President Trump's leadership.

And I give President Trump all the credit because this is his leadership made us happen. His leadership gave us the most secure border in history of this nation. His leadership is given us a record number of criminal arrests in this country. His leadership is given all the tools and the money and the funding they need to enforce immigration all across this country. His leadership is why there's a negative net migration. His leadership is saving thousands of lives every month on that border. Joe Biden, 4,000 aliens died making that journey.

Quarter of a million Americans died from fattenmore. Sex trafficking was sky high because President Trump has 97% less people come in. How many women aren't being raped? How many children aren't dying? How much sex traffic isn't happening? How many fattena's not across that border? That's a good day every day. But we win a lot.

But when you find out about another citizen burying their child because of illegal alien, that's a bad day. That's the day that you don't feel like you won very much. So we have good days and bad days. Overall, I'm proud to work for this president. I think he's the greatest president in my lifetime. People attack me for saying that. I'm a border guy. I'm an immigration guy.

I'm a cop. No one's done it better than President Trump. Put the numbers on the board. I've worked for six presidents and 11 administrations. No one's done it better than Trump. The numbers prove it. The data proves it. So, you know, I'm happy to be here, working here.

I take a lot of hate. I hit pieces on me every day. I don't care. They just pour gas in my fire, because I'm here for the right reasons. So you were saying that you had, you know, record removals, the last, you know, increasing record removals, the last few months.

You think we're on, you're on track for another record this month? Yes. I think we're on track for record deportation. I think this month was the highest deportation one month we've ever seen. I mean, there's some naysayers, others saying, oh, you're fudging numbers. You're not fudgeoning numbers. I mean, every day when my detail, security deal picks me up in my home, I sit in a backseat, I read 22 pages of data. What's happened last 24 hours?

I get a report from ICE, how many people they arrested. I get a report from ICE, how many people were deported, removed. I get a separate report from the Border. How many people they arrest at the border? How many they arrested in the terror? How many did they turn around? Um, border numbers aren't added to the ICE numbers, which said, you know, people like say, oh, the only reason breaking Rex are adding all the numbers together.

No, board were told those numbers, ICE does their numbers. I report. When I got out there saying ICE made a record arrest in June, July, and August, there were ICE arrests. Bored number that were here. What the data proves record every month. And I think by the end of this year, Trump already beat Obama. Obama had the record 409,000 renewals. and FY12 when I was at ice I got I got a presidential rank award for distinguished

service for removing that many people same people who gave me that presidential rank award now I want to put me in jail because I'm arresting illegal anza record numbers under Trump how this country has changed in the last decade at one point you get an award for moving illegal a minute by the Democrat president and now the Democrats think you shouldn't be arrested anybody and this is what i want people understand they haven't changed a bit you would think after four years of historic illegal migration where millions of illegal aliens were illegally released in this country illegally given parole against what the statute says you think they'd be ashamed that

open border caused a quarter million american americans dying from fentanyl record sex trafficking uh record number no inspector to terrorist being or the rest of the board you would think they'd be ashamed and try to walk back four years but they didn't say a word and now what are they doing they want to abolish the agency that's in charge of finding these people and removing them they haven't changed a bit they don't want us remove these millions of people they all you know conspired together to get into this country because they see some future political benefit with millions of people in the country there's no other reason you don't want to I I've asked numerous people on Hill, Democrat. What is the downside on a secure border? What's the downside?

Less drug trafficking, less alien smuggling, less sex trafficking, less known expected terrorists. What is the downside of a secure border? There's no downside on a secure border. What they did under Biden wasn't incompetence. It wasn't mismanagement. It was by design. You can't convince me any of the reason. They see a future political benefit, have millions of illegal aliens sitting in sanctuary cities whether you know they're counted in next senses or whether you know they think their future democratic voters but now they're upset because we're out there arresting them at record numbers and i really truly believe they want to when the next democratic administration comes in they'll war and amnesty the millions of people that came in under biden

no one's going to convince me everything different because i can't think of another reason why that would happen explain to me why you don't want people who enter the country where you've been ordered removed by judge why don't you want him removed haven't changed so I hope American people pay attention because don't forget the images of 12,000 people a day coming across the border don't forget the images of young children dying of fat and all every day don't forget the images of Border Patrol pulling infants out of the water that drowned don't forget the images of Borgett relations given CPR to children that the cartel threw in the river so the Borgettel wouldn't

catch them don't forget those images you know 15,000 Haitians under a bridge that just walked across the border and we're released I don't want Americans forget those images because what we're doing right now is trying to fix what happened and we fix it by removing people who are not supposed to be here and for those who say well you going beyond that you're asking somebody who's here for 15 years has two years has two years citizen kids okay so the message you want to send is cross the border illegally it's a crime but don't worry about it get order removed by a judge don't worry about it have

a u.s citizen child and you're free you get amnesty the law means nothing to you if that's the message we want to send to the whole world you're never going to fix this people are going to still put themselves in harm's way to come to the greatest nation on earth if you come to this country in violation law you cheated the system you can call them been here 15 years whatever you want they cheated the system they put themselves in front of the line where millions of people are taking their tests paying their fees doing background investigations to be the part of the greatest nation on earth they're sitting in back of the bus now because people choose to cheat the system to cross border

illegally and I say this many times I take I take a lot of hate well you know you deported that person as a USC child that's not me if you're in the country illegally and you choose to have a child knowing that child be a citizen if you choose that and that's your decision that's on you so if a parent gets ordered removed parenting one-on-one making a decision what you want to do take the child with you and leave them with a relative i know that sounds cruel but the option is allow that to happen and more people won't come take advantage of that more people die more women and children get raped If you want to fix the system, we have to enforce the law.

Again, there's right way and wrong way to come this country. There's a reason we have laws in this country. You need to bind them. Abide by them. In addition to the removals, you also have these self-deportations or self-removals, really, and those numbers are actually pretty quite significant. Self-deportation are actually increasing. I look at the numbers this morning.

And why are people self-deporting? Because they know right now the border is not open. There hasn't been an illegal alien release from the border in 17 months. They know there's no open border anymore. You come to the border, you're going to be detained or immediately turned around. And one of the reasons we have the most secure border in history of this nation isn't just because we stop catching release. It's because the world's seeing what ICE is doing. We're out enforcing law, without apology, we're going to enforce law.

We're going to prioritize public safety transport. Everybody's on the table if you're illegally. The world sees that. The world sees record arrest, record removals. So, and the message is clear. Leave on your own, then leave yourself an opportunity to come back legally. Maybe you have a U.S. citizen child or something that can petition for you someday. But if we have to go through the process arresting you, put it from an immigration judge,

and give you a deportation order, there are statutory bars that prevent you from come back to this country, 10, 20 years. So leave on your own, leave yourself an opportunity. And a lot of people are taking advantage that. Plus, the government gave you a check to help you get on your feet when you get down on the, you know, CBP Home Map. It's working. And I think you can see a record of self-removals in the next two years because ICE is out there. And they're out there full force. And I think it's over for a million already of those.

Yeah, well, DHS is putting out almost 1.8. I don't see that many numbers. I go to the database, like the database CBP Home Map, but there's a lot of people salty porn that aren't reporting to the CB Home Map. They just leave, and they're counted when they go south of the board and stuff. So that accounts for the discrepancy.

I was wondering about that. Yeah. Yeah. So a lot of people said, I'm just going to go home. And when they go home, they record, you know, going to the country. So how many is it on the app then? I don't remember. I think it's 1.4. Okay.

But I know there's been over 2 million self-deport dates, but a lot of them are, you know, there's been studies done by independent groups that are closer to 2.5 million self-tee portates. A lot of people simply don't use the CB home, they just go home. So I actually had a meeting with the Deputy Secretary Homeland Security, Troy Edgar, Tuiskeau. I told him we need to have a solid number on this, so we need to, you know, bring up a the Forest Security, we need one number to make sure that, you know, we're being transparent. So it's a record number. It's well over a million, but there's, I know the Department of Homeland Security have put out over two million. So we need to know exactly what that number is. It's hard because

people that South Depot don't always go through the CP Home Map. But we know we're making record gains. You can see it. You know, one of the areas that the president has been quite interested, is challenging this birth tourism that's, you know, in particular been used a lot by, there's been, we've reported on a number of operations out of communist China to facilitate this. And of course, the SCOTUS decided that, you know, birth tourism is off the table, but Congress can make laws. And so here we are. And the president had an executive order targeting travel and visa fraud.

And so how is that going? Another region where the most secure border of history. because we're shutting down all the loopholes, and all the fraud that's going on. But birth tourism, I mean, to me, the biggest issue of birth tourism, first of all, it's a driver of illegal immigration, but the bigger issue for me is a national security vulnerability. Two of the biggest abusers of birth tourism are China and Russia.

So we want to have millions of Chinese and Russian nationals, national is going to have ability to, you know, to vote in this country, run for officers because they're going to be U.S. citizens. I just think it's a national security vulnerability, and we need to address it. I'm, I was disappointed the Supreme Court found the way they found, but it's now it's Congress's job. If you care about our national security, you need to address this. As far as the fraudulent, all the fraud were uncovering, whether it's reviewing the

refugee applications? Do they really qualify for refugee status? Do they really qualify parole? And one of the things I read just this morning, I look at the numbers, we have a record number of parole denials now because we're holding to the statute. You want to claim asylum, you need to be escaping fear and persecution from your home government because your race, religion, political affiliation, or participation in a specific social group. Like, if you're homosexual,

some countries will kill you for that. But we're holding to the statute. So the denials on asylum are an all-time high, and they should be. Even, you know, five, six years ago, nine out of ten people claim asylum at the border ended up with the order removed because they simply don't claim it. They don't qualify for asylum.

They're coming in for a job. They're economic migrants. I get it. But there's a loop of claim asylum. You're going to be released. And it takes years to have a hearing. And by then, hopefully, you know, they're hoping someone becomes president that's going to give amnesty. Same thing with TPS, temporary for Texas status.

I've been doing this since 1984. I've seen very few TPS that were temporary. They go on and on and on. President Trump changed in the rules. They said, look, temporary means temporary. every refugee or every parole or every asylum seeker we're going to look and make sure they qualify they're going to go home and and that is one of the biggest reasons we have self-removals people leaving because we're stopping the fraud we'll go by letter law if you don't qualify for you to go home because you know the asylum seekers know that the millions of people that claim asylum they're clogging up the whole system while there are actually a lot of people in this world really really do need their protection, because they really are escaping fear and persecution, and they're sitting in the back of the bus.

Again, the asylum process was abused. It was welcomed by the Biden administration, just like the misuse of the parole policy was. I mean, think about it. They were bringing 30,000 people in a month to the CHMV program, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela. Do you know a lot of those people didn't even come to those four countries? They're already in Ecuador or another 30, they have status in another country. But they took advantage and came under that program.

They didn't even come from Cuba, or Nicaragua, or Haiti, or Venezuela. So, you know, we're reviewing all of that. And I think that's one of the reasons President Trump has great success with immigration. That's why there's a negative net migration, just because we're simply enforcing the law. You know, that's interesting.

I'm aware of some cases where, you know, of people who are actual asylum seekers but are kind of caught in the, you know, this is, these are massive operations, that you're running here, right? This is... Yeah, she's talking many of the people. I mean, the courses is backed up.

Another reason that... Another thing the Trump administration is doing, we're hiring record numbers to judges and speeding up hearings, you know? We don't want someone a hearing to be out seven, nine years. You ought to have a hearing as possible. And when you're in detention, you get a hearing within 40 days.

If you're outside detention, it can be years. So I think we detain who we can, could they get a hearing more quickly because immigration court prioritizes those in detention, which makes sense. So let's build the attention capacity so we can, you know, have these hearings quicker. And that's what we're doing. Just on this birth tourism, to finish that up, in the northern Mariana Islands, I've actually, we've reported on this quite a bit myself here, there's actually the one place in America where

Chinese can go without a visa, and that's one of these loopholes that you mentioned. I don't know. Are you guys doing anything with that specifically? We're all over it. Okay. I can't share a lot, but thanks you for reporting. I actually saw that reporting. We're on it. I'll leave it to that.

Okay. We're on it. It's being addressed. There was also this influx of military age, Chinese males, many military age. You described it as, you know, without the coordination of approval of the Chinese government, this kind of wouldn't have been possible. Have you, have you been affected? of removals of these sorts?

How are you addressing this situation? Yes. First of all, we're prioritizing what we're looking for. We're working very close with the Bureau and the intelligence community to find out who is the national security threat. But yes, we're making great progress on that. And I met what I said. You don't bring tens of thousands of Chinese

into this country from China. Well, the coordination of the Chinese government. It just don't happen. And I truly believe that. So, yeah, they got a lot of attention. They got a lot of attention not from the DHS, but from DOJ and intelligence community. So, yeah, we're on that. And I think, again, national security issue, right?

When the game-changing thing President Trump did, all the government's on this. I mean, we do immigration operations, DEA, ATF, FBI, you know, Border Patrol ICE, we're all out there. Now that we heard thousands of more ICE officers, we need less at all. They can get back to the main mission. But President Trump's bringing the whole of government on this. When it comes to national security threats, all the government is involved to this day. There is the national security council and the Homeland Security Task Forces are concentrating on things like the Chinese and the others that I think pose a national security vulnerability. Well, there's a on that point exactly, I think as far as I'm aware, at least, we had the first use of the alien terrorist removal course.

DOJ removed in Afghan National. Can you tell me a bit more? Are there more in the pipeline? Yes. That's a tool that we're going to be using. It's the first time, at least in my career, you can see a lot more of that. You know, one of the greatest things President Trump did

was designate terrorist groups, designated the criminal cartels, terrorists, terrorists now, MS-13, TDA, and, The drug cartels, that brings, again, brings the whole weight of the government on them. We can attack them and play their way game with them, rather than playing a home game, play the way game. So I knew President Trump was going to design terrorism. I mean, at the RNC for the election, I sat on stage that President Trump becomes president, he's going to designate these group terrorist organizations.

He's going to wipe them off the face of earth. I think we're working toward that. You mentioned earlier that you're hiring. I know that the one big beautiful Bill Act, you know, you actually got a cash infusion of it. I think it's $75 billion. That's what I have in my notes. But that's some good money. How are you using that?

Hiring, more technology. I mean, overall costs DHS. We're building more border wall faster, quicker and cheaper because there's so much competition. Every mile border wall will be built by the time President Trump in his office. And the wall, when you say border wall, that's the full scale. Primary and secondary wall in some areas. But yeah, every wall that we plan to build that President Trump has direct to be built will be built by time this administration ends. Because they're building it faster and they're building it cheaper because there's a lot of competition on that wall.

We're sticking with the prototype. So, you know, some parts of the border, we're using technology. morning wall you get the big bend national parker you get cliffs that's there's your wall that clips it's hired in the wall so they can't they can't get up that you know a straight cliff but um buying a lot of technology hiring officers was the biggest one put more boots on the ground and with that comes cars and equipment and real estate office space uh we're building the attention capacity i said in day one we need at least 100 000 beds and we're working toward that right now i think we got like 77,000 in custody table we need more beds we should have you know if at it my way we

have about 120 hundred twenty five thousand beds and we're working toward that so building more beds having that detention capacity putting our agents on the ground the technology is a big thing you know with all the technology available especially on the northern border in the next two years i'm really concentrating on the northern border the southern border The southern borders is the highest security we've ever had. Now that we have the money and the time, because southern borders, you know, most secure has ever been, I think we need to dedicate more resources than northern border,

whether it's manpower, technology, infrastructure. I'm super interested in this, actually. I'm Canadian, you know. I'm hearing a lot of, a lot from family and friends north of the border. But what does that look like? You're saying you've secured the southern, now you need to secure the northern. What is the threat from the northern?

In the last three months, I've been to every northern border sector out there. I grew up on the northern. I grew up on a Canadian border. I know the northern border very well, especially the northern border in New York, where I grew up, and I still have a home there.

Every sector is a little bit different on the northern border. Some want more boots underground. Others want barriers because it's rather than a, you know, a Lake Ontario, St. Orange River, it's a land barrier. They need drive-through barriers. They need some sort of border barrier. But they all want technology. They all want towers.

They all want more drones because there's hundreds and hundreds of miles of border that you'd have to, you know, you'd have to hire, you know, 100,000 border to hold hands to go across that border. So a lot of them are requested more. more technology and more infrastructure, whether drive-through barriers or some sort of border barrier in places that can't be patrolled easily, more air assets. And one of the biggest things is cooperation of Canada. I mean, I met with Canadian officials a little over a year ago and we had a mutual interest in stopping cross border crime.

Right? Some crime goes north, some crime goes south. But, you know, if they would dedicate resources to the border security and we would dedicate more resource to the border security, we can work together on that. So I know there's some politics involved right now, but we'll get beyond that. We get past that.

And I think we can work well with them. We haven't passed. And we get real close to some agreements, like shiprider agreements where we work together and stuff. So that's still a lot of work to be done, but that's why I, uh, next two years I'm really concentrated on that because that's been, I'm not going to say it's been ignored, but, you know, I can't, you send the firemen where the biggest fire is now is the southern border, but now it's under control when you start, you know, um, um, amping up the northern border

because I think the northern borders is a huge national security vulnerability. Well, so, so this is exactly what I went on touch on. It's kind of obvious to us roughly, right, what the threats are from the south. reported on it at nauseam. As Canadians, we just sort of imagine ourselves, you know, why do you even need a, where's the national security risk? It's just Canada, right? Canada's immigration laws are very lax. You know that. It doesn't take a lot to get into Canada. I believe, based on my experience and based on intelligence reports I see, national security threats can enter Canada a lot easier than going to enter United States to come to the United States to its harm.

I see. I also believe there are, I think drug trafficking goes both ways. Indian reservations on the border present a problem. And we've been working with them trying to increase enforcement through the reservations. But, you know, they're a sovereign nation amongst themselves, so it takes a lot of negotiating. So I think the United States and Canada, both. want, again, because I've met with them, shut down cross-border crime because it's not good for either country. I think we're both concerned with shutting down the criminal element,

shutting down the drugs, and illegal immigration, especially those who pose a threat to our nations. So, I mean, this has been an absolutely fascinating conversation. Perhaps a final thought from you as we finish? We're not quitting. the media, members of Congress, can you tackle us all you want? President Trump's in the Oval Office based on its promise to secure the border and enforce immigration law.

That's what we're going to do. So it's unfortunate. The hateful rhetoric is out there, but they think we're going anywhere's or not. We won't keep doing this job. That's why American people vote for President Trump in the Oval Office. And despite the negative press out there, this country's crime. crime indexes had an all-time haul. It's not all because illegal immigrants, they're not all public safety threats, but we arrested and removed hundreds of thousands of criminals from this

country. That certainly had an effect on a crime rate. And every criminal illegal alien we deport makes this country safer, makes our neighborhood safer. I'm on a mission with the men and women of the board with joint ice make this country safer. And you can't have strong national security if we don't have border security. We need to know who's coming in, what's coming in, where it's coming in, why it's coming. And by time this administration ends, we're going to be in the best position where we're been in. Again, today we've got the most secure southern border in the history of the nation, even better than Trump 45. Again, not a single illegal annual annary release in 17 months.

Compare that as 12,000 a day coming across the border under Biden. Compare that to 2.7 million a year coming across the border on Biden. And just let me qualify that. You're saying that not a single one has been released, but you have people coming across. Some of them are noticed and then they become these gotaways, but you don't have any of those. I just want you to kind of disambiguate this for me.

me yeah when we apprehends somebody at the border the mortals not release them they were turned right around or they've been detained now is your gotaways well yeah anybody thinks you can cover 2,000 miles a border route of gotaway they're crazy but the got away numbers are store close I mean you you just talking went from you know thousands of thousands a day to less than hundred and the good thing is board patrols checkpoints are back up we were shut down during the Biden administration so we have northern checks we're getting a lot of those

galleries you got away from the border it may get away from the border but they're not getting to a checkpoints so we're arresting a lot of them but uh think about that 12,000 you know 10,000 up to 12,000 under Biden most released in United States now releasing nobody in the United States and we're tracking the small group people got out of ways where they come, or we're attached additional resources, whether the Department of War resources or other board patrol from other sectors coming in. So every place we see a sieve, we're plugging it right away. So most secure border ever and the data approval. Well, Tom Homan, it's such a pleasure to have had you on.

All right. Thanks for having. I appreciate it. Thank you all for joining Border Tsar, Tom Homan and me on this episode of American Thought Leaders. I'm your host, Yanya Kellick. Thank you.