On January 30, 2017, President Donald Trump appointed Thomas D. Homan to be the new acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Acting Director Holman replaces Daniel Ragsdale, who had been the acting director of the ICE since 2013.
A news release [link] issued by the Secretary of Homeland Security, John Kelly, explains that acting director Homan has 30 years of immigration enforcement experience. Prior to his new appointment, he served as the executive associate director of the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). In 2015, he received the Presidential Rank Award “for his exemplary leadership and extensive accomplishments in the area of immigration enforcement.”
On April 27, 2016, the now-acting director was profiled in the Washington Post in an article titled “Meet the man the White House has honored for deporting illegal immigrants” [PDF version].1 In the article, Homan was quoted as saying that deportations are “not my favorite part of the job.” However, Homan argued that the ICE is not properly portrayed in the media, and that he is often “frustrated” with the common portrayal of the ICE.
In the article, the author, Lisa Rein, speculated that “[i]f Donald Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) gets to the White House,” Homan could be chosen to lead the ICE. With President Trump’s appointment, Rein’s speculation turned out to be well founded. Acting director Homan has extensive experience in immigration enforcement, and I hope he finds success in fairly and faithfully executing the ICE’s mission in his new capacity.
