No illegal immigrant should be off the table for deportation if Donald Trump is returned to the White House, former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Homan said.
On the campaign trail in September, Trump vowed to carry out the "largest domestic deportation operation in American history" if he’s back in the White House.
The New York Times recently reported that Trump met with Homan after announcing his campaign. Homan has repeatedly said he'd take the chance to be part of the administration.
"People say, ‘How are you going to remove millions?’ The answer is: One at a time," Homan told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. "No one's off the table. If you're in the country illegally in violation of immigration law, you are a target. ... I'm not fooling myself into thinking we can remove 20 million people. But, you know, we're going to give it one hell of a shot and remove as many as we can."
"It's going to have to result in a historic — the biggest ever — deportation operation in the history of this country. That's what happens. When you've got historic illegal immigration, well, that means you've got a historic removal program. That's just the way it is. If we're going to enforce our laws, that's the way it is," Homan added.
Homan said removing those with a final order of removal from a federal immigration judge would be a top priority.
Operations wouldn’t involve indiscriminate "sweeps," but targeted enforcement operations planned in advance, targeting specific criminal illegal immigrants, Homan told Fox News Digital. But those operations can also result in collateral arrests of other illegal immigrants.
"We're not going to turn a blind eye to them if they’re in the country illegally. We take them into custody. That's our job. So, it isn’t like we walk through a neighborhood looking for people who look different from us. These are targeted enforcement operations," Homan said.
In terms of logistics, he said the agency would need a lot more detention beds to detain people, more ICE agents to make the arrests, more technical support for those creating the targeted operations and more contractors to search databases. He also said there needs to be legislation that would make migrants ineligible for future immigration benefits if they ignore a judge’s removal order.
"That way, they're not hiding out waiting for the next amnesty. They're not hiding out waiting for someone to sponsor them for a visa," he said.
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