(Headline USA) Incoming border czar Tom Homan hinted this week that the Trump administration would conduct weekly briefings to update the public on the number of arrests and deportations of illegal immigrants, the Daily Mail reported.
“We need to be very transparent,” Homan said of President-elect Donald Trump’s mass-deportation plan. “There needs to be a weekly White House press briefing on exactly who we’re arresting and who we’re saving, who we are putting in jail, who we are deporting, so the American people know we’re true to our word.”
The idea of weekly briefings seemed to echo the daily briefings that Trump himself delivered, alongside then-COVID czar Anthony Fauci and others, during the peak of the 2020 pandemic crisis, when he deployed additional executive powers under the auspices of a national emergency to ensure a streamlined medical response.
The Trump transition team has not confirmed whether Homan’s proposed briefings—or any sort of emergency declaration—were an official plan.
However, Homan suggested the briefings could be just one tool in his arsenal to pressure Democratic sanctuary cities and states to comply with federal immigration enforcement.
“Everything changes on Jan. 20,” he said.
Homan also argued that Congress needed to step up and do its part in order for Trump to thoroughly carry out his immigration agenda.
“Say someone in is illegal. Let’s say he’s a criminal. He’s convicted of murder, originally from El Salvador,” Homan said, before arguing that his agencies’ hands were tied with bureaucratic and diplomatic complications that would require sufficient funding.
“I can’t put him on an airplane on day one,” Homan explained. “You gotta detain him long enough to get travel documents, get landing rights; El Salvador has to admit that it’s their national. That takes a few days to a few weeks. So I need beds.”
Congressional Republicans shot down Trump’s request to extend the budget ceiling in order to help implement his ambitious objectives, assuring that partisan wrangling over federal spending on immigration enforcement will be a routine battle, as it was in Trump’s first term.
“I think Congress got a strong message in November,” Homan said, in reference to the GOP sweep of both the House and Senate, along with Trump’s landslide victory.
“American people want this to happen, so make it happen,” Homan added. “Give us the money we need.”
A recent poll from the Associated Press confirmed Homan’s arguments, showing that immigration was currently the top issue for Americans and had risen by 45% over the past two years as the effects of the Biden administration’s open-border agenda became manifest.
When announcing Homan’s appointment, Trump said the border czar would be responsible for “all deportations of illegal aliens back to their country of origin,” and play a central role with regards to “the southern border, the northern border, all maritime, and aviation security.”
