The world waits in suspense as Donald Trump’s new administration gradually becomes known. On Monday, he announced who will be at the head of what he has promised will be an extremely strict immigration policy: – Tom Homan will become part of the Trump administration, with responsibility for the nation’s borders (“border tsar”), Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. – I have known Tom for a long time. No one is better at policing and controlling our borders, Trump writes. He adds that Homan will also be responsible for deporting illegal immigrants out of the United States. Homan has been active throughout the presidential election campaign. Here he spoke at the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin in July. Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP Took over after sacked predecessor It is somewhat unclear what the “border tsar’s” formal title will be. Some are now wondering whether Homan will take over as head of the federal agency for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which, among other things, is responsible for monitoring the United States’ borders. He may also be relevant as minister for domestic security, writes the Reuters news agency. Homan was acting head of ICE for a year and a half last year when Trump was president. Migrants aiming to reach the United States pictured in Villa Comaltitlan in Mexico on November 7, 2024, two days after the election. Photo: Daniel Becerril / Reuters He was appointed in January 2017, after Trump fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates and Acting ICE Director Daniel Ragsdale. That was after Yates made it clear she would not defend one of Trump’s executive orders in court. The presidential order was an entry ban on people from seven countries with a predominantly Muslim population. Divorced children and parents Donald Trump has said he will revive and expand the controversial travel ban from 2017. He has also promised the largest mass deportation in US history. Last time Trump was president, three million people were deported. One of the most controversial measures was an order requiring border officials to separate children and parents crossing the border from Mexico. In 2016, it was immigration that decided the election, Trump became president. Now he uses the same recipe, with extreme rhetoric. Program leader is Eline Buvarp Aardal. The proposal is said to have been made by Thomas Homans, who thought it could deter people from going to the United States. – Most parents do not want to be separated from their children, said Homan in an interview with The Atlantic in 2022. The border fence between the US and Mexico at Nogales in Arizona. The picture was taken in June. Photo: Jae C. Hong / AP Almost 3,900 children were separated from their parents or guardians between 2017 and 2021, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior. A lack of overview meant that several people were not reunited with their parents for a long time. Some never returned to their families. Should not stand on the price After major protests and a lawsuit from the organization American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the practice was stopped. When Joe Biden became president he ordered reunification. No one knows how many illegal immigrants live in the United States. The Ministry of Security estimated that there could be around 11 million in 2022. The Port Isabel Detention Center in Los Fresnos in Texas is one of the integration camps for refugees. The picture was taken in June this year, when the media were brought to the camp. Photo: POOL / AFP A mass deportation would be both expensive and difficult, Acting ICE Director Patrick J. Lechleitner told NBC News in June. It will also require cooperation between several ministries and agencies. To the same news channel, Trump has since claimed that the price will not be an obstacle. – It is not a question of the price tag. “In reality, we don’t have a choice,” Trump said. Can use the military Trump has, among other things, promised to use a martial law from 1798, which states that people accused of belonging to criminal gangs can be deported at short notice. Reuters writes that the law will probably face challenges in court. Both Reuters and CNN write that Trump could conceivably want to use the military in the mass deportation. American presidents have great power over the military, says Torunn Haaland, professor at the Institute for Defense Studies (IFS). The president, for example, is called “Commander in Chief”, i.e. the military commander-in-chief. Torunn Haaland says it cannot be ruled out that Trump may use the military to deport illegal immigrants en masse to the United States. Using the military against one’s own population is not legal. But for illegal immigrants, the situation may be different. – They are not American citizens, because they are illegal immigrants. So maybe the law is more unclear there, says Haaland to news. – They don’t really have any protection. Several thousand a day The high number of migrants to the United States has long been a problem, also for democratic presidents such as Joe Biden and Barack Obama. During Obama’s first term as president, 2.5 million immigrants were deported. This summer, Biden ordered that migrants who cross the border from Mexico illegally can be denied asylum and sent back within hours. A cross-party agreement on measures at the border was then torpedoed by Trump, who has since made a strict policy towards migrants and at the border a cornerstone of the election campaign. This summer, more than 2,500 illegal border crossings were registered per day. That was down from almost 10,000 a year and a half earlier. Interested in foreign affairs? Listen to the foreign affairs editor’s podcast here: Published 11.11.2024, at 14.50
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