Trump named Tom Homan his “border Czar,” but after serving as a local cop with the West Carthage, NY police, he joined the Immigration and Naturalization Serve and was appointed by President Obama to the position of “Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations” in 2013. Obama awarded Homan the Presidential Rank Award in 2015, and WaPo praised his service.
Thomas Homan deports people. And he’s really good at it.
As it turned out, there was a reason for this.
But the bottom line is, that plane was full of — of people designated as terrorists, number one. Number two, every — every Venezuelan migrant on that flight was a TDA member based on numerous criminal investigation, on intelligence reports, and a lot of work by ICE officers. Matter of fact, two days after that flight took off, I even had a discussion with the acting director of ICE and we — he reiterated that every person, every Venezuelan on that plane was a known member of the TDA.
In other words, they’re “guilty” because he says they’re really certain they’re guilty, and if there was any doubt, the director of ICE “reiterated” that they were guilty. What more could anyone want?*
KARL: Do they have any due process at all?
HOMAN: Due process — what was Laken Riley’s due process?
(That’s a “no”) pic.twitter.com/cqN5KQn0FV
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 23, 2025
The “Laken Riley” rationale has become something of a mantra to defenders of extraordinary rendition, who, like Homan, don’t believe they are doing anything wrong by depriving the deported of due process, both because they believe the law allows it and they deserve it. After all, if ICE says they’re guilty, how could they possibly be wrong?
Many people would immediately recognize Homan’s invocation of the “Lakin Riley” mantra to be simplistic and stunningly false. No, murder victims are not given due process by their murderers. That’s because they’re murderers, and murderers are criminals who, upon conviction for their crime, are punished. By no stretch of logic or policy does that mean the government should be no different than a murderer, a criminal, and employ the criminal’s behavior as the measure of the government’s behavior.
Most people do not need this explained to them. But then, Tom Homan isn’t most people.
When pushed on whether he would release the information about the deportations, Homan said the decision would need to be “litigated in the courts.”
“There’s going to be more litigation on this case, I’m sure. But what we did — what was done by the Trump administration was exactly in accordance with federal law, again, enacted by Congress and signed by a president,” he added.
Homan is talking about the Alien Enemies Act, there is little doubt that he believes what he’s saying, that he’s acting in full compliance with the law.
“We’re not making this up. We’re enforcing laws around the books.”
Like Karoline Leavitt, Homan is no lawyer and is merely regurgitating what he’s told, what he believes to be true. That there is “one cool trick” that nobody thought of before but legalizes what he’s been told to do, remove these “illegals” from the United States of America. And he’s really good at it. And those inclined to believe whatever their president, also not a lawyer I might add, tells them no matter how legally nonsensical it might be or logically bankrupt.
For the great unwashed, there really isn’t much of a concern here, as they are absolutely clear that these aliens are “illegal,” that they have “invaded” the US by coming over the border, en masse, through the holes in Trump’s fence illegally, and that they deserve neither due process nor, frankly, any concern for being shipped elsewhere. They “asked for it,” and they’re only getting what they deserve. Wipe away those tears, kids, unless you’re crying for Laken Riley, who was given no due process by her murderer.
But are they all really gangbangers, Tren de Aragua or MS-13? Homan is confident, but is that all we need to be assured they didn’t toss in a barber or a soccer player, neither of whom were convicted of any offense and weren’t here illegally? They may well all have deserved to be removed. Or maybe not.
But it no more falls to Tom “Trust Us” Homan than it would to any arresting officer in any prosecution. This is true despite the victims of crimes never receiving due process, because they are the victims of criminals and the government is not a criminal. At least it didn’t used to be.
*As the late Ronald Reagan astutely said, “Trust, but verify.” He had a point.
