Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) praised President-elect Trump's new border czar, Tom Homan, a more than 30-year veteran of immigration enforcement who was responsible for Trump's mass deportation pledge.
“President Trump has the difficult task of finding these people, locating them, and deporting or imprisoning them. We have the right person in charge. His name is Tom Homan. He will be border czar. That's true,” Abbott told John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM's “Cats Roundtable.”
Homan served as acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in 2017 and 2018 before announcing his retirement. He started working in law enforcement as a police officer, then moved up the ranks to the Border Patrol, the now-defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service, and then ICE.
Homan has led ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division since 2013 and had a reputation as a moderate during the Obama administration. draw criticism from some hard-liners Early days of the first Trump administration.
But Homan has become the face of the Trump administration's toughest immigration policies, and is said to have proposed family separation as a measure to deter immigration even before Trump took office.
During the interview, Mr. Abbott said he had already begun working with Mr. Homan on border security and planned to meet with Mr. Homan in Texas this week.
“Next week, we will work to resolve border issues in Texas and across the United States,” Abbott said.
Abbott insisted that Texas is taking an active versus passive stance on the border and preparing in the event of violence ahead of President-elect Trump's inauguration.
Abbott's interview comes as the governor plans to expand buoy barriers across the Rio Grande to deter migrants from crossing the southern border, even as border crossings within the state have declined. I was disappointed. However, his use of buoys faces multiple legal issues.
