Several sources have indicated that President-elect Donald Trump will appoint key cabinet and advisory picks with vicious anti-immigrant views for his second term in the White House, raising concerns about his anti-immigrant agenda and his vow to carry out the largest deportation plan in U.S. history.
According to several reports, Trump plans to select former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director Tom Homan to serve as “border czar”; former Trump administration adviser Stephen Miller to act as deputy chief of staff for policy; and current South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to head the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to reports citing sources within Trump’s transition team.
In addition to sources indicating these appointments to various news agencies, Trump has announced Homan’s appointment in a Truth Social post. Vice president-elect Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) has also indicated that Miller will be joining the incoming administration.
The decision to appoint Noem as DHS secretary, which hasn’t yet been confirmed by Trump or Vance, is unusual, as she has no direct experience with national security. Her qualifications seem to rest on the fact that she is a fierce Trump loyalist who voted in favor of his Muslim travel ban as a member of Congress.
It appears that Homan, meanwhile, will likely use his position as “border czar” (and his experience as former acting head of ICE) to carry out elements of Trump’s mass deportation plan, including pressuring states and threatening local governments to fall in line.
During an interview on Fox News on Friday, Homan appeared to be ratcheting up the pressure campaign already.
In that appearance, Homan claimed that Trump’s deportation plans are not based in “hate” or “discrimination” and are not “about being racist” — characterizations that fly in the face of Trump’s racist and flagrantly false characterizations of immigrants during his campaign. Homan then issued a warning to Democratic politicians.
“If [Democratic governors] are not willing to help, then get the hell out of the way, because ICE is going to do the job,” Homan said during the interview, characterizing Trump’s win as a “mandate” to act however he wanted.
During another Fox News interview on Monday, Homan directed his threats to undocumented immigrants themselves. “We know who you are and we’re gonna come and find you…We’re coming for you,” he said.
Homan also said he isn’t opposed to “workplace raids” in order to round up immigrants.
Critics have noted that Trump’s immigration plan will likely target immigrants who have been legally approved to live in the U.S. and that families will be broken up with little recourse or respect for their due process rights. In a recent “60 Minutes” interview, however, Homan offered a supposed solution to concerns about family separation.
“Families can be deported together,” he said.
One of the principal architects of the child separation policy during Trump’s first term was Stephen Miller, who is pegged to serve as deputy chief of staff. During his first tenure in the White House, Miller also crafted arrest quotas for undocumented people and an executive order effectively banning immigration from five Muslim-majority countries.
Miller is a noted white nationalist, with emails obtained by Hatewatch in 2019 demonstrating his desire to completely eliminate nonwhite immigration to the U.S. In 2020, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) included Miller in their list of domestic extremists, citing his racist fearmongering about immigrants and his promotion of white supremacist conspiracy theories.
“Through the conscious use of fearmongering and xenophobia, Miller implements policies which demonize immigrants, regardless of their immigration status, in an apparent effort to halt all forms of immigration to the United States,” SPLC wrote in its analysis.
Miller has also expressed the belief that Trump should be authoritarian on issues of so-called national security.
“The powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned,” Miller said upon Trump entering the White House in 2017.
Immigrant rights organizations have stated that, despite public threats from future Trump administration officials, they will oppose the president-elect’s mass deportation plans.
“We will continue to speak out, to expose injustice and to fight as we did under Trump Round One,” read a recent statement from Al Otro Lado, which provides legal and humanitarian support to refugees.
“We urge our allies, the communities that we serve and those just now waking to the realization that remaining apolitical and staying out of issues that ‘do not concern them’ is no longer an option,” the organization added, noting that now is the time “to reflect on how we can work collectively, how we can share knowledge and resources, and most importantly, how we can support each other.”
Immigration lawyers have also vowed to oppose the incoming Trump administration’s mass deportation plans, as they did during his first term.
“We have spent the last nine months planning for [a potential Trump election win], and are prepared to go to court as often as necessary, just like the first time,” ACLU immigration rights lawyer Lee Gelernt told The New York Times.
“The Trump team might think they are ready. But so are we,” said Immigrant ARC chief executive Camille Mackler.
Angry, shocked, overwhelmed? Take action: Support independent media.
We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
As we undertake this life-sustaining work, we appeal for your support. Please, if you find value in what we do, join our community of sustainers by making a monthly or one-time gift.