Trump taps Thomas Homan as ICE director

President Trump will nominate Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting Director Thomas Homan as his pick to permanently lead the agency, the White House announced Tuesday.

Trump appointed Homan as acting ICE director after taking office in January. The Senate must still hold confirmation hearings and approve his nomination to serve in the role permanently.

Homan has served with the agency for three decades, including time spent in Dallas and San Antonio as an immigration officer. 

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His views on immigration align with Trump, who campaigned on building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and toughening immigration laws. In June, Homan told Congress that undocumented immigrants “should be concerned” about being deported. 

“You can’t be a part of this country unless you have respect for the laws of this country and the people that protect you — the people that enforce the laws,” Homan said at the time.

Later in June, Homan spoke at a White House press briefing, where he condemned sanctuary cities that don’t carry out immigration detainers on undocumented immigrants.

Sanctuary cities “pose a threat to the American public,” Homan said at the time, adding that “criminal aliens and criminal gangs flourish” in big cities.

The department has sparked controversy this year by arresting a teenager hours before her senior prom in June and detaining a 10-year-old with cerebral palsy following emergency surgery. Agents eventually released the 10-year-old after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit.