By Steve Neavling
Families with children will again face detention under U.S. immigration policies when President-elect Donald Trump assumes office next month, according to Tom Homan, the incoming White House “border czar.”
Homan revealed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to use “soft-sided” tent structures similar to those deployed by border officials during previous immigration surges, The Washington Post reports. Parents in the country illegally will face deportation even if they have young children who were born in the United States, he said, placing the decision to stay together or separate in the hands of the families.
“Here’s the issue,” Homan said during an in-depth interview that outlined key aspects of Trump’s mass deportation plans. “You knew you were in the country illegally and chose to have a child. So you put your family in that position.”
Family detention was discontinued under President Joe Biden, who shut down three ICE-run “residential centers” in 2021. These facilities, which provided roughly 3,000 beds, were dormitory-style and included programs for recreation and education. However, they faced criticism from pediatricians and immigrant rights advocates who argued that detention negatively impacted children.
A federal judge responsible for overseeing programs involving detained minors has established a 20-day limit for how long children can be held in family facilities. Because the deportation process often takes longer, ICE has generally opted to focus on adults who are easier to remove. Homan, however, indicated this approach could shift under Trump’s leadership.
“We’re going to need to construct family facilities,” Homan said. “How many beds we’re going to need will depend on what the data says.”
Although Homan will not be directly overseeing ICE’s day-to-day operations in his new role, he will play a prominent part in border and immigration strategy alongside Kristi L. Noem. Noem, currently the governor of South Dakota, has been selected by Trump to lead the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE.
Homan, who previously served as acting ICE director during Trump’s first term, was a key architect of the “zero tolerance” policy that resulted in the separation of over 4,000 children from their parents at the border. He emphasized that the upcoming enforcement efforts will aim to deport families as a unit, though he acknowledged the challenges posed by children with U.S. citizenship. In those cases, parents will have to decide whether to split up or leave the country together.
