President-elect Donald Trump will install immigration hawks to two key positions in the White House, key positions that do not require Senate confirmation and will allow them to implement his sweeping immigration agenda across the federal government.
Tom Homan, his pick for “border czar,” and Stephen Miller, his White House deputy chief of staff for policy, will not formally direct any branches of government, but they are likely to wield enormous influence over Cabinet secretaries and agency directors. They are expected to be seen as the president’s direct emissaries, with the authority to push for specific actions and monitor progress in implementing Trump’s agenda.
Their portfolios will include some of Trump’s biggest immigration promises at the Department of Homeland Security: mass deportations, expanding immigration detention capacity and hiring thousands of border agents.
But beyond DHS, they are likely to show interest in the Department of Health and Human Services — which plays a role in handling resettlement of refugees and unaccompanied migrant children — and the Department of Labor, which issues key certifications for certain employment-related based visa programs.
The State Department, which issues visas, will also be a focus, as will the Justice Department, which runs the immigration courts.
The expected installation of Homan and Miller signals that Trump plans to make good on his promise of mass deportations. The Trump transition did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Homan previously headed the department of DHS responsible for arresting, detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants. He spent much of his career in immigration enforcement, serving in leadership positions at Immigration and Customs Enforcement during both the Obama and Trump administrations.
And Miller spent more than a decade in Washington working to reduce legal immigration to the United States and increase deportations. He was an early supporter of Trump’s presidential bid in 2016 and has remained closely associated with the president in the tumultuous years since.
“Trump is clearly much more deliberate about how he makes his appointments and spends his time working with people he knows and trusts,” said Daniel Stein, the president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for stricter immigration restrictions .
Homan and Miller both campaigned with Trump, and Trump promised to hire Homan if he won the election. Both played a role in Trump’s divorce policy during his first term. Their quick appointment to senior White House positions — one of the first personnel selections Trump has made for his second administration — signals that immigration enforcement is Trump’s top priority.
Homan has been steadfast in his continued support for strict immigration enforcement and stood firm in the face of criticism that policies such as family separations were unnecessarily cruel. When a 60 minutes An interviewer asked him in October whether mass deportations could take place without separating families. Homan said this was possible.
“Families can be deported together,” he said.
Miller, meanwhile, played a starring role at Trump’s now infamous final campaign rally at Madison Square Garden.
“In nine days your salvation will come,” Miller said at the October meeting. ‘In nine days your redemption will be near. In nine days, Donald J. Trump will return to the White House.”
Now Miller and Homan are going with him.
And even though so many of Trump’s former top officials disowned him — including former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, ex-DHS Secretary and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, and former National Security John Bolton, to name a few — Homan and Miller unapologetically.
“I’m hated by a large part of this country, and honestly, I don’t care,” Homan said at the Republican National Convention in July. “I just don’t do that, because if they wore my shoes for 34 years, they would understand me, and a lot of them would agree with me.”
One important outstanding question: exactly how much power will they wield?
“The question is not what Homan’s appointment tells us, but whether Homan can actually make a difference,” said Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that pushes for less legal immigration and stricter enforcement of immigration laws.
“That kind of czar job poses real challenges,” he added, given its amorphous description and broad jurisdiction.
Immigration restrictionists are also keeping a close eye on the influence of Elon Musk and other Silicon Valley titans to see if they try to change the White House’s approach to H-1B visas and the number of foreign-born workers in tech and other industries to modulate.
“That probably won’t happen in the near future because they will have their hands full [with the border]but further down the road there could be problems,” Krikorian said.
Immigrant rights advocates, meanwhile, expect sweeping action from the new administration — and they’re deeply concerned as Trump returns to power.
“What we know from his past work and his recent comments is that he supports a perceived, harsh and brutal agenda for civil immigration enforcement,” Nayna Gupta, policy director of the American Immigration Council, said of Homan. “He will use public safety rhetoric to play on people’s fears to build support for an agenda that imposes pain and suffering on immigrant communities and undermines the interests of the United States.”
