Interview with Tom Homan on the Biden Border Crisis, Plans for a Second Trump Administration

Dr. Peter Navarro has named securing U.S. borders as one of the three policy legs of “the iron MAGA triangle of populist economic nationalism” (the other two policy legs are strengthening American manufacturing and ending America’s “endless wars”), and Americans look forward to finding out how border security factors into his forthcoming book “The New MAGA Deal.”

With this in mind, I interviewed Tom Homan, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from 2017 to 2018 under President Trump, to learn about the current state of the border security crisis under Joe Biden and ask about border security plans for a second Trump administration.

A native of West Carthage, New York, Director Homan served as a police officer in his hometown and became a border patrol agent in 1984, before rising through the ranks to become head of ICE three decades later. President Trump awarded Homan the Distinguished Security Medal in June 2018 and the National Security medal in January 2021 “for distinguished achievement in the field of national security through exceptionally meritorious service.” Author of the book “Defend the Border and Save Lives,” Homan is seen by multiple sources as the presumptive choice for a border czar position during a second Trump administration.

On the Border Crisis

Director Homan sees the border crisis under Joe Biden’s watch as the top issue in the 2024 presidential election, calling it “the biggest national security failure since 9/11” and pointing to a major surge in known and suspected terrorists apprehended at the border. During the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s fiscal year 2023, more than 700 apprehensions of known and suspected terrorists were made at the U.S. border. And in fiscal year 2024, over 50 known and suspected terrorists have been stopped at the border so far.

“If they’re arresting this many people on the terrorist watchlist, how many aren’t they arresting? We’ve got well over 1.8 million known ‘gotaways’ since [Biden has] been in office,” Homan stated. “This country is realizing now, even some Democrats and many independents, that this border issue is a huge national security issue. It’s just a matter of time that something terrible happens.”

On China’s Invasion Across the Border

When discussing totalitarian China’s role in the border crisis, Director Homan observed that “China is a terrible country.”

Chinese nationals make up the fastest growing group of illegal immigrants, with more than 37,000 apprehended while crossing into the U.S. illegally in 2023, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, almost 10 times the number of Chinese nationals apprehended in 2022.

Graph source: Nikkei Asia

Estimating that approximately 30,000 males of military age from China have illegally crossed into the United States during the Biden administration, Homan stated, “That is a very serious national security issue with Chinese [illegal aliens], because you’re not talking about families, not talking about children, you’re not talking about females, most of them are military-age men. So that in itself should be a huge concern to the American people.”

 “Some of these military-age Chinese males are coming here for national security reasons,” Homan said. “If we think that not a single one of these military-age Chinese males didn’t come here to spy on us or create some sort of security vulnerability, then we’d be ignorant.”

Homan noted that China withholds information regarding its nationals who have entered the United States illegally, and that our vetting of Chinese nationals “is only as good as the information that’s available to us.”

“They’re not going to cooperate with us on the issue of national security information on any of their nationals,” Homan said of China. “I mean, seriously, they sent a spy balloon over our country. Do you think if they send someone over here to spy on us or do a terrorist act, do you think China’s going to share any intelligence with us?”

In addition to Chinese nationals entering the U.S. illegally, Homan pointed to China’s major role in the United States’ fentanyl crisis. China produces precursors to the fentanyl that is illegally smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico.

In his book “In Trump Time,” Dr. Navarro lists China’s “relentless annual slaughter of tens of thousands of Americans through its flooding of our communities – often our poorest working-class communities – with deadly fentanyl and other opioids” as one of “China’s Seven Deadly Sins” against the United States.

“China’s trying to destroy this country, poisoning over 100,000 young children with fentanyl,” Homan said.

Plans for a Second Trump Administration

Director Homan stated that during a second Trump administration, “If I was in charge [of border security], I would be instituting the Trump policies right away.”

“We know the ‘Remain in Mexico’ program works…we know walls work, so we’d have to just dust off what we already did and proven effective,” Homan said. “Those that came to the country illegally, that get ordered removed, they need to be removed. There has to be consequences.”

Homan noted that the record yearly number of illegal alien removals – 409,000 – occurred in fiscal year 2012. With millions entering the U.S. illegally during Biden’s time in the White House, during a second Trump administration “you would need more ICE agents, you’d need more detention space,” Homan said. He added that the number of deportations achievable largely depends on the budget and resources available, including numbers of officers, detention beds, and removal flights.

Adam Molon is a guest columnist for Peter Navarro’s Taking Back Trump’s America and author of NewSentry, a Substack publication. Dr. Navarro has called Adam “a rising Young Gun in journalism.” Adam is on Twitter/X and Gettr @admolon and on Truth Social @NewSentry.

Peter Navarro’s Substack account, including all individual article posts, are temporarily being handled and managed independently of him.

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