Border czar Tom Homan takes command Minneapolis immigration operation

Minneapolis is the Trump administration’s latest flashpoint on immigration, and a familiar figure is taking command of the federal operation after days of two deadly shootings and agitators fueling growing protests in the Twin Cities.

Border Czar Tom Homan, a career law enforcement officer with more than four decades in immigration enforcement, has worked in both Republican and Democratic administrations, including official recognition during the Obama administration. Allies say his resume belies claims that he is a partisan operator and makes him an ideal choice to take the leadership in Minneapolis.

“Tom Homan is a career law enforcement professional whose service spans multiple presidential administrations, both Republican and Democratic. He is a no-nonsense American patriot who is dedicated to making his country better. So I have every confidence that Tom is the right person for the job,” America First Legal president Gene Hamilton said in an interview with Fox News Digital.

Hamilton continued: “People know exactly who they’re dealing with when they’re dealing with Tom Homan. He’s a known entity.”

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Hamilton worked on immigration policy with Homan during Trump’s first term and told Fox News Digital that Homan was the right person to oversee the Minnesota operation because of his law-and-order approach and record between administrations. Hamilton is now president of America First Legal, after previously serving as Trump’s deputy White House counsel in the first half of 2025.

Homan was deployed to the Gopher State on Monday, effectively replacing Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino and reporting directly to President Donald Trump as he takes charge of the administration’s crackdown on immigrants in the Twin Cities. His leadership of the operation follows a pair of high-profile shootings involving federal law enforcement that left two Americans dead and Democrats calling the deaths “murder” while pointing to ICE as a modern-day “Gestapo.”

“Tom Homan is a patriot with decades of experience effectively protecting American communities and deporting criminal illegal aliens,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said when asked about Homan taking over the mission.

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A White House official told Fox News Digital that the administration “has not wavered” from its mission to detain and deport illegal immigrants during the leadership change in Minnesota; Trump wants to work with state and local leaders to prevent further violence and eliminate public safety threats, an official said.

Democrats have criticized ICE’s broader crackdown as heavy-handed and called for investigations and tighter restrictions on enforcement tactics after agitators Renee Good and Alex Pretti were fatally shot by law enforcement this month. Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer echoed that criticism, calling what happened in Minnesota “appalling” and pushing for new oversight and guardrails on ICE’s conduct as the Trump administration insists the mission remains unchanged and focuses on law and order.

Commenting on Homan, Jackson added, “The Trump Administration will never hesitate to defend law and order and protect the American people.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, left, and White House border czar Tom Homan speak with reporters at the White House on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homan began his federal law enforcement career in 1984 as a Border Patrol agent with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which was abolished after 9/11 and replaced by the Department of Homeland Security. His rise through the ranks of federal law enforcement included former President Barack Obama tapping him to lead ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations in 2013.

Hamilton said Homan is not a partisan actor, focused on ensuring lawful deportation results, as he did for the Democratic administration.

Hamilton continued his comments about Homan: “Tom Homan’s mission is not partisan. It is not political.” “The only people making this political are the authorities in Minnesota who have turned this into a rallying cry for agitators who are determined to riot in the streets of Minneapolis and obstruct federal law enforcement more than, frankly, anything we’ve seen in recent history.”

Chad Wolf, Acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during President Trump’s first term, wrote an op-ed for Fox News Digital describing Trump’s assignment of Homan to oversee the operation as “an absolute stroke of genius.”

“Homan is not a political firebrand trying to make headlines. He is a career law enforcement professional with more than 30 years of experience with ICE and the U.S. Border Patrol who understands the operational realities of immigration enforcement,” Wolf wrote. “Sending him to Minnesota isn’t about provocation; it’s about restoring coherence to a dangerously fragmented situation.”

DHS data show deportations increased under the Obama administration, including a record number of removals of 438,421 in fiscal year 2013; This fuels the “deporter-in-chief” label that activists have used to describe the 44th president.

In 2016, Obama presented Homan with the Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Service, an honor that recognizes leaders who produce “consistently outstanding results.”

President Barack Obama speaks about immigration reform during a meeting with young immigrants known as DREAMers in the Oval Office of the White House on February 4, 2015. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

“Thomas Homan deports people. And he’s really good at it,” the Washington Post wrote in an article about the award at the time.

The article continued: “Homan is the Washington bureaucrat tasked with rounding up, detaining, and expelling illegal immigrants from the country.” “While Americans fight over whether the next president should build a wall on the Mexican border to keep immigrants out or protect millions from deportation, Homan is actually hunting down undocumented immigrants and strategizing for 8,000 cops on the front lines.”

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Fast forward to the campaign cycle when Trump was elected to his first term, Homan was reassigned to help combat immigration for the Republican president’s administration, serving as acting director in 2017 and 2018.

Tom Homan, then-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Executive Director for Enforcement and Deportation Operations, testified before the House Judiciary Committee in 2014. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Now the border czar vows not to leave the Twin Cities “until the problem is resolved.”

Homan openly suggested that ICE could withdraw from direct action in the community if local leaders allowed federal agents access to jails to detain deportable immigrants in a controlled environment; It’s a proposal that effectively turns Minnesota into a test case for whether bunker-style resistance can be traded for prisoner cooperation.

He met with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz after arriving in the state, calling the interactions “productive” as he plans to pull back the number of federal agents on the streets to focus on deporting illegal aliens held in prisons.

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“More agents in prison means fewer agents on the street,” Homan said Thursday. “This is a common-sense collaboration that allows us to reduce the number of people we have here. Yes, I said: reduce the number of people here because we have the efficiency and security of the jails and prisons.”