Trump's border czar details record deportation plans and rise in detentions

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to deport over 600,000 undocumented immigrants by the end of the year, President Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said at Axios' Future of Defence Summit on October 22.

The estimate comes as the Trump administration highlighted that roughly 1.6 million undocumented immigrants have “voluntarily” left the United States, and an additional 400,000 were deported during the first 250 days of Trump’s second term.

“If you’re in the United States illegally, you’re not off the table,” Homan told Axios reporter Brittany Gibson in Washington, D.C. “If we find you, we’re going to arrest you.”

Homan added that about 70% of individuals arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are classified as criminals, while the remaining 30 to 35% are identified as national security threats despite having no prior criminal record. When Gibson noted that these figures did not align with ICE’s bi-monthly reports to Congress, Homan said the data lawmakers receive is “behind” and depends on how the raw numbers are interpreted. He further explained that many of those considered national security threats already have final orders of removal and were afforded due process, although he did not specify exactly how many individuals fall into this category.

Since Trump returned to office, the number of people held in immigration detention centres has risen by more than 50%, according to an Axios review.

Homan, who retired less than a year into his first term as acting director of ICE during Trump’s first administration, returned to the White House as border czar to enforce the president’s strict immigration policies. He previously served in multiple roles at ICE, including as executive associate director under President Obama in 2013.

By Tamilla Hasanova