‘Baked to death’: Homan shares horrific scenes from border enforcement career

White House border czar Tom Homan lashed out Friday at critics of President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, arguing that secure borders save lives while recalling horrific scenes from his decades of border enforcement — including immigrants being “cooked to death” in a tractor trailer.

In his speech at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Path to Majority Policy Conference in Washington, DC, Homan used sensational stories to push back against critics who accused the Trump administration of being inhumane; instead, he argued that stricter border enforcement saves lives by deterring immigrants from making dangerous journeys controlled by cartels.

Addressing the crowd, Homan said, “I want to talk about why I’m angry this morning,” arguing that media reports have wrongly portrayed Trump’s immigration policies as cruel or inhumane.

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“There is nothing further from the truth,” Homan said. Rather, the border czar said critics were shortsighted by arguing that lax border enforcement created conditions for migrants to be exploited, attacked or killed by smugglers and cartels. “What President Trump does is save lives,” Homan told the crowd.

He then described one of the most striking scenes he said he had witnessed during his career in border protection.

“I stood behind a tractor trailer with 19 dead people at my feet,” Homan told a crowd at the Washington Hilton on Friday morning, adding that the victims included a teenage boy and was found in his underwear trying to escape the extreme heat in the back of the truck.

“They were all cooked to death,” Homan said. “I arrived at the scene. They were all in their underwear, trying to get some relief from the 170-degree heat, trapped in the back of a steel truck. “Imagine how these people died.”

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The Texas Department of Public Safety said about 50 illegal immigrants were found in a junkyard tractor trailer in Webb County and turned over to Border Patrol. Five adult males who initially emerged from the trailer were arrested. (Texas DPS)

Homan said he also spoke with young girls who were raped by cartel members on their way to the U.S. border.

“I got down on my knees to talk to little girls as young as 9 who were being raped multiple times by cartel members,” Homan said.

“This is what happens when you have an insecure border,” he added. “Well, guess what? There isn’t a 9-year-old little girl that everyone is on their knees talking about right now. President Trump closed the border.”

Homan has repeatedly defended Trump personally and politically, saying the president has secured “the most secure border in the history of this nation” and arguing that the administration’s crackdown on immigrants is aimed at preventing more deaths, smuggling and cartel exploitation.

US President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda has been criticized by Democrats and immigrant rights advocates. (Michael M. Santiago and Nathan Howard / Getty Images)

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“Secure borders save lives,” Homan said towards the end of his words. “Secure borders protect our national security. No one has done this better than President Trump. And we’re not done yet.”

The remarks come as the Trump administration continues to face criticism from Democrats and immigrant rights advocates for its mass deportation efforts, expanded immigration enforcement and efforts to reverse Biden-era border policies. But Homan called the crackdown a moral imperative, saying the administration has made the country safer while reducing the incentives for immigrants to leave themselves in the hands of criminal cartels.