“Border czar” Tom Homan announced that the Trump administration would prioritize an increase in workplace raids as a component of its immigration enforcement strategy.
The former director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), shared his plans during an appearance on Fox & Friends: “Where do we find most victims of sex trafficking and forced labor trafficking? At worksites,” he explained to host Steve Doocy.
Homan said their intention is to locate and assist individuals who may be victims of trafficking and exploitation. However, critics argue that workplace raids often fail to help trafficking victims and instead add undue hardship to already vulnerable populations.
“He’s conflating the traffickers with the people being trafficked,” said Heidi Altman, director of federal advocacy at the National Immigration Law Center. She warned, “Tom Homan is skilled at using public safety rhetoric to justify vicious tactics that tear families apart.”
Trump exaggerated the number of missing migrant children
{{/usCountry}}“He’s conflating the traffickers with the people being trafficked,” said Heidi Altman, director of federal advocacy at the National Immigration Law Center. She warned, “Tom Homan is skilled at using public safety rhetoric to justify vicious tactics that tear families apart.”
Trump exaggerated the number of missing migrant children
{{/usCountry}}The incoming “border czar” has suggested that only foreign nationals with existing deportation orders would be targeted. Homan pointed out that immigrants with such orders “became a fugitive.”
The former director of ICE also addressed claims made during Donald Trump’s recent campaign that the Biden administration had “lost over 300,000 children that were smuggled in this country by criminal cartels.”
The claim leans on a report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General released in August, which, compared to May 2024, revealed that of the 543,006 unaccompanied minors, 291 015 have not been provided with court notices, while 32 315 of those who received the notices failed to attend court.
The report cautions that these numbers are derived from information regarding almost 450000 unaccompanied children that have been released by ICE to HHS from October 2018 to September 2023. Therefore, a large number of such kids were freed throughout Trump’spresidency, during the first term rather than because of the current administration.
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“This is not a ‘missing kids’ problem; it’s a ‘missing paperwork’ problem,” explained Jonathan Beier, associate director of research and evaluation for the Acacia Center for Justice’s Unaccompanied Children Program, in an interview with The Associated Press.