White House border czar Tom Homan told CNN on Sunday he thinks Democratsâ apparent decision to prolong the partial government shutdown is not due to differences in Immigration policy but instead âexecution.â
Homan appeared on âState of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bashâ on the 37th day of the Department of Homeland Securityâs (DHS) partial shutdown. The interview also aired two days after a poorly attended Senate chamber failed to fully reopen the department, with every voting Democrat except Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman opting to continue the standoff. Host Dana Bash asked the border czar what Immigration enforcement policy changes President Donald Trumpâs administration is offering Democrats âto end this impasse,â prompting Homan to reply he thinks the real disagreement is not about policy.
âI truly believe this isnât really a policy issue. We have the same policies in place we had during Obama and Biden and Clinton and ,â Homan told Bash.
Prior to joining the first Trump administration, the border czar held a leadership role in the Obama administrationâs Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
âSo, the policy really hasnât changed. Itâs the execution of those policies that weâre talking about,â Homan continued.
âItâs really about policy execution more than policy,â he added.
WATCH:
The Obamaâs administration previously removed more noncitizens from the U.S. than any other presidential administration, according to DHS data. This fact notably prompted many pro-Immigrationactivists on the left to nickname the Democratic president the âDeporter in Chiefâ during his White House tenure.
Trump deported about 675,000 illegal immigrants during the first year of his second term, according to a Jan. 20, 2026, DHS press release. During the his entire first term, however, he removed about 1.2 million non-citizens. Even when these two totals are combined, they fall well short of the nearly 3 million deportations of the two-term Obama administration, multiple analyses of DHS data indicate.
Furthermore, when removals and returns are combined, the president who expelled the most people out of the U.S. is another Democrat, Bill Clinton, according to DHS data analyzed by El Paso Matters.
Homan added the Trump administration is âhaving good conversationsâ with Democrats âbut more conversations need to be had, because we certainly canât surrender ICEâs authorities and their congressionally mandated job.â
During the Sunday interview, Bash also pressed Homan on whether the White House is âopen to changingâ Immigration enforcement policy to acquiesce to some Democratic demands, such as requiring ICE agents to remove their masks.
âAs you see on the letter that was out the other night, weâre talking about identification, badge number, name, either/or because no Border Patrol has the name on their uniform. ICE does have a name on uniforms,â the border czar answered. âWeâre talking about clear identification. Weâre talking about access to detention and things like that. So, a lot of these things â as I explained to the senators â a lot of these things are already in play. And identification has been ever since Minneapolis.â
âAnd Iâm trying to explain the situation on the ground isnât the same as it was in Minneapolis. Weâre doing targeted enforcement operations, and the detention standards are the same. They were in the last administration, but there was a problem with access to detention standards,â Homan continued. âThat problem doesnât exist anymore. So, a lot of the changes after Minneapolis has already been implemented, and thatâs what Iâm there to explain to them.â
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