Tom Homan, President-elect Donald Trump's Border Patrol agent, is headed to Texas to prepare for a crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Lone Star State Gov. Greg Abbott said Homan will tour the Texas-Mexico border with him during a visit later this week.
He praised Homan as “the right person in charge” of border security and deportation of illegal immigrants.
“President Trump has the difficult task of finding these people, locating them, and deporting or imprisoning them,” Abbott said. said on sunday “Cats Roundtable” 770 “WABC Radio”.
“We have the right guy in charge of it. His name is Tom Homan. He's going to be border czar. I've already started working with him. He's in Texas next week. He plans to join me.”
Mr. Abbott, who has clashed with the outgoing Biden administration over dangerously lax border policies and refusal to cooperate with Texas on enforcement, said he was excited to have a willing partner to jointly address the crisis. Ta.
“There were some people who were hostile to Texas securing our border. Now we have an ally. Texas will be working with the Trump administration,” Abbott said.
“First, we're going to secure our borders. Second, we need to remove all these dangerous criminals from our country in order to restore peace and security to our communities.”
The governor said the arrest and deportation of members of the Venezuelan prison gang Torren de Aragua will be a top priority for both the Trump administration and the state of Texas.
“You've seen the outbreak of members of the Torren de Aragua gang here in New York. We have members of the Torren de Aragua gang in Texas as well. …Biden Allows Illegal Entry We have to stop the murders by people who did this,” Abbott said.
The state of Texas has declared Torren de Aragua a terrorist organization.
Homan said part of the mission is to deport gang members.
He choked up during a recent interview discussing the murder of Laken Riley by illegal immigrant and Tren member Jose Ibarra, saying he should never have set foot in this country.
“We utilize law enforcement at the federal, state and local level to pursue them more than any other state in America,” Abbott said Sunday. “We have already arrested hundreds of people. If you are a member of Tren de Aragua in Texas, you will be arrested. You will be jailed.”
Texas, a border state, has been a hub in the fight against illegal immigration for decades.
But when border crossings got out of control two years ago, Mr. Abbott sought to spread the burden of responding to the crisis by putting thousands of migrants on buses to urban centers in New York City and other blue states. I started sending it to the department. This turned out to be a brilliant political strategy despite criticism, and Democratic mayors, including Eric Adams in the Big Apple, were forced to publicly pressure and criticize Biden over the issue.
Texas officials last week added more buoy barriers to some stretches of the Rio Grande to deter illegal crossings after the Biden administration lost a lawsuit against the state over floating barricades.
Mr Abbott said Sunday more buoys, fences and walls would be used to deter crossings.
Homan spoke to the Post last week about how he plans to use the military to help deport illegal immigrants.
Homan, who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during President Trump's first term, said he would hire military personnel to perform “non-enforcement” duties, such as providing transportation, in order to free up more ICE agents in the field. He said he plans to hire people.
He said he is prepared to fight sanctuary cities and states such as New York that prevent local law enforcement officers from communicating with federal authorities based on their immigration status.
The next Border Patrol official said harboring illegal immigrants is a felony.
“Don't cross that line,” he said.
