NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — A former immigration official during the Trump administration said that there must be “historic deportations” if former President Donald Trump is re-elected in 2024, stating that there is “no other option.”
Tom Homan, the former director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, spoke on a panel titled “Trump’s Wall Vs. Biden’s Gaps” during the first day of the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday.
The panel also featured investigative reporter Sara Carter and U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn. Townhall field reporter Julio Rosas served as the moderator of the discussion.
During the discussion, Homan stressed that there are “consequences” for entering the country illegally and that there has to be a “historic deportation operation,” claiming that there is “no other option.”
Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that nearly 7.3 million people have entered the U.S. illegally since February 2021, the first full month of the Biden administration. That figure exceeds the population of at least 35 U.S. states, as of the 2020 U.S. Census.
The former immigration official added that the only other option aside from deportation is to allow illegal immigrants to stay. If that happens, Homan warned that the United States is “never going to fix the border.”
Homan recounted how he has worked for six presidents throughout his career, including former President Barack Obama, stating that every president took steps to secure the border. He also praised the Trump administration’s border policies, calling them “unprecedented.”
“Joe Biden’s the first president in the history of this nation who came into office and unsecured the border on purpose,” the former ICE director claimed.
Some of the current issues Homan connected to the current administration’s border policies included an increase in sexual violence against migrants.
In November, the international nongovernmental organization Doctors Without Borders highlighted a surge in sexual violence impacting migrants traveling from Latin America to the United States. The group published a statement revealing that it had treated 397 victims who survived a sexual assault as they crossed into Panama in the first 10 months of 2023.
Ninety-five percent of sexual assault victims were female, according to the group, which noted that it had treated 107 sexual assault survivors in the month of October alone.
In addition to an increase in sexual violence, Homan raised concerns about the record number of migrants dying at the U.S.-Mexico border and Americans dying due to fentanyl making its way across the border. According to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency and Office of Field Operations seized 27,000 pounds of fentanyl in 2023.
Homan blamed the Biden administration’s border policies for migrant deaths and Americans dying due to fentanyl. The former ICE director believes that the border policies under the Trump administration “saved lives,” and he called for the former president to be re-elected in 2024 to “save this great nation.”
The discussion at CPAC comes less than a year before the 2024 presidential election, with immigration expected to loom large.
The RealClearPolitics average of polls asking Americans for their views on Biden’s handling of the immigration issue, taken from Jan. 3 to Feb. 20, show the president with an approval rating that is 33.3 points underwater.
On no other issue does Biden’s net disapproval rating measure that high. His overall net disapproval rating, based on polls conducted between Jan. 29 and Feb. 21, is -15.7 points. The 2024 presidential election is expected to be a rematch between Biden and Trump.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
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