Who is Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s new lead on Minnesota immigration crackdown?
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Tuesday brought a changing of the guard in the Minnesota immigration crackdown of the Trump administration as Tom Homan arrives to take the lead.
Homan replaces Border Patrol commander at large Gregory Bovino, who was moved out of Minnesota.
President Donald Trump sought to shake up the effort after public backlash over two U.S. citizens were killed by immigration agents, the federal portrayal of those deaths didn’t stand up to eyewitness and video accounts and clashes on the streets of Minneapolis grew more frequent.
So who is Tom Homan?
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A long history in law enforcement
Homan started his career in law enforcement in New York as a police officer, then became a border patrol agent in 1984 in California. He then climbed the ranks at the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, an agency that was dissolved in 2003 after its functions were transferred to three other agencies under the Department of Homeland Security.
Homan began working for ICE when it was created in 2003. President Barack Obama named Homan executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations for ICE in 2013. In 2015, Obama awarded Homan the Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Service.
During Trump’s first term, he promoted Homan to acting director of ICE.
The architect of family separation
Homan has been credited as the architect of the family separation policy, which he proposed under Obama and was able to implement under Trump. He told journalist Caitlin Dickerson he considered taking children away from their parents as a deterrent. “Most parents don’t want to be separated,” Homan said to her. “I’d be lying to you if I didn’t think that would have an effect.”
Under family separation, more than 5,500 children of immigrants were taken from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018. By 2024, more than a thousand children had still not been reunited with their families, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Project 2025
Homan is listed as a contributor to Project 2025, a conservative playbook for the second Trump administration written by the Heritage Foundation. The plan advocates for a variety of immigration policy changes including immediately deporting unaccompanied children, more funding for a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, new fees for asylum seekers and a pause in funding for nongovernmental immigration groups.
Bribery investigation
In September 2024, according to media reports, Homan accepted $50,000 in cash from an undercover FBI agent. In exchange for the money, he allegedly promised government contracts related to immigration once he joined the second Trump administration.
The Trump administration has since closed the case.
Trump names Homan ‘border czar’
In a widely expected move, Trump announced in November 2024 on Truth Social that Homan would join his second administration and take charge of border security, “all Maritime, and Aviation Security,” and “all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin” as “border czar.”
Homan to Minnesota
On Jan. 26, Trump declared he would send Homan to Minnesota to oversee the immigration operation in progress for almost two months. This follows the two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens in January that have soured public opinion on the Trump administration's deportation push.
