‘National Security Vulnerability’: Trump’s Border Czar Promises to Harden Border With Canada
The man President-elect Donald Trump has tapped to clamp down on illegal immigration has a personal connection to the U.S. northern border and he intends to harden it to protect against what he calls significant national security threats.
Trump announced on Nov. 11 that former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting director Tom Homan will oversee the work of federal entities involved in border security when the Trump administration enters the White House in early 2025.
A lot more illegal migrants are coming through the U.S. southern border, but there's a smaller ratio of border officers at the northern border, Homan said, leading to fewer patrols on roads and waterways. He said this poses a "huge national security issue."
Homan also said that during his 34-year career he'd seen "a lot" of "special interest aliens" from countries sponsoring terrorism trying to reach the U.S. from Canada. He said these types of migrants choose to cross from Canada because they can afford the higher costs, being backed financially, and they know there's less border surveillance.
"So it's an extreme national security vulnerability in the northern border and it's one of the things I'll tackle as soon as I'm in the White House," said Homan, who hails from a town in upstate New York and owns a residence on the border.
"There has to be an understanding from Canada that they can't be a gateway to terrorists coming to the United States."
Homan told WWNY his role in the White House will be to establish the strategy and oversee the deportation operation, in coordination with entities like DHS, ICE, and CBP.
Acting ICE Director Patrick Lechleitner told NBC News this past summer that deportation involves a lot of resources. "It's not only putting them on planes and flying them, which is expensive, we got to have airplanes," he said. "We also have to deal with host nations. We have to get travel documents, we have to do all the logistics involved with that."
Homan said while some say the deportation operation will be very costly, he suggested it would be a cost-saving measure. "Mass deportation is going to cost money up front, but in the end, we're going to save the taxpayers a lot of money," he said.
With Trump's promised immigration crackdown, authorities in Canada are also bracing for an increased inward migratory flow.
"We're not wishing for this, but if it does happen, we'll be ready," Sgt. Charles Poirier told The Epoch Times, noting the police force is looking at logistics around transportation and potential buildings to use. The installations at Roxham Road, Que., which dealt with a steady stream of migrants coming from the U.S., were dismantled in 2023 after Ottawa and Washington closed a loophole in their agreement around asylum seekers.
