Tom Homan and Kristi Noem: What Border Agents Think of Their Incoming Bosses

Border Patrol agents are “ecstatic” that immigration-enforcement veteran Tom Homan will serve as border czar in the second Trump administration, a union spokesman told The Daily Signal. 

“We have somebody now that’s [come up] within the ranks,” Manny Bayon, president of the National Border Patrol Council for the San Diego area, said of Homan. “He was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement director before, and he wants to fix it.” 

On Nov. 10, Trump named Homan border czar for his incoming administration.  

The National Border Patrol Council, the union for Border Patrol agents, officially endorsed Trump for president in October.

Homan will work closely with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security, to carry out the president-elect’s agenda at the southern border.  

Border Patrol agents are “happy there’s somebody besides Mayorkas” who will lead DHS, Bayon said, referring to current Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, appointed by President Joe Biden.  

“Our former border czar didn’t do anything,” Bayon said, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris. “She had the ability to do something, being vice president, and she did not.”

In March 2021, Biden tasked Harris with “leading the administration’s diplomatic efforts to address the root causes of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras,” according to a White House fact sheet.  

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly referred to Harris as Biden’s “border czar.”  

Trump’s choice of Homan as his border czar isn’t surprising, given Homan’s years of experience working on border and immigration issues and his stint running ICE in the first Trump administration.  

In 2017, Trump appointed Homan as acting director of ICE, a position he held until his retirement a year and a half later. Homan began his career in border security in the 1980s when he joined the Border Patrol; he began working for ICE in the early 2000s.

Because Homan worked his way up from the job of Border Patrol agent, he has “the confidence of the rank-and-file agents in the field,” a Customs and Border Protection official who asked not to be named told The Daily Signal.  

Agents are “very positive” about Homan, the CBP official said, noting that “Homan has made it very clear that we are going to enforce U.S. immigration law.”  

More than 10 million illegal aliens have entered the U.S. since Mayorkas became Biden’s homeland security secretary on Feb. 2, 2021.  

The CBP official The Daily Signal spoke with indicated that Border Patrol agents aren’t as familiar with Noem as Homan, but said the agents consider the Republican governor to be “competent.”

Noem has been a vocal supporter of Trump in general and of securing the southern border specifically.  

In February, Noem announced she would send South Dakota National Guard troops to Texas to aid in that state’s efforts to secure its border with Mexico.  

“Kristi has been very strong on Border Security,” Trump wrote Nov. 12 in announcing Noem’s appointment as homeland security secretary. “She was the first Governor to send National Guard Soldiers to help Texas fight the Biden Border Crisis, and they were sent a total of eight times.” 

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