President-elect Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan said in a Thursday interview that halfway homes for children of non-U.S. citizens may be a necessary part of Trump’s plans for mass deportation of immigrants lacking permanent legal status.
“As far as U.S. children — children, that’s going to be a difficult situation, because we’re not going to detain your U.S. citizen children, which means, you know, they’re going to be put in a halfway house,” Homan told NewsNation’s Ali Bradley.
“They can — or they can stay at home and wait for the officers to get the travel arrangements and come back to get the family,” he added.
Homan confirmed this week that a return of family detention centers will be a part of Trump’s mass deportation efforts, which the president-elect has said will be the largest in history.
Trump has threatened to deport every single person in the U.S. illegally, as well as going after the status of many currently here in accordance with the law.
In response to accusations that the process will inevitably prove cruel and inhumane, Homan has suggested that multi-status families “self-deport” in lieu of facing ramped up immigration authority.
Trump has also threatened to go after birthright citizenship, which is protected by the Constitution, but his incoming border czar made it clear that having children born in America will not shield parents from deportation.
“Having a U.S. citizen child does not make you immune to our laws, and that’s not the message we want to send to the whole world, that you can have a child and you’re immune to through the laws of this country,” Homan said on NewsNation, which like The Hill is owned by Nexstar Media.
