Border Czar: Trump Plans to Detain Migrant Families in ‘Concentration Camps’

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming border policy leader has stirred concerns by announcing in a recent interview with The Washington Post, published Thursday, that the administration intends to detain migrant families with children, a move that signals a return to prior controversial policies.

Tom Homan, the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Trump and soon to be reinstated, explained that ICE plans to confine parents and their children in flexible, tent-like structures reminiscent of those used during immigration influxes, as summarized by the Post. He emphasized the administration’s readiness to deport parents residing illegally in the U.S., regardless of whether their children were born in the country, leaving such families to decide whether to leave together or be separated.

Following Trump’s election victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, concerns have resurfaced about the Republican’s prior immigration actions—like family separations—and his campaign promises for 2024, which include widespread deportations and attempts to abolish birthright citizenship, despite protections under the 14th Amendment.

Homan, who managed the infamous “zero tolerance” policy resulting in the separation of numerous migrant children from their parents, stated: “Here’s the issue… You knew you were in the country illegally and decided to have a child. You put your family in this situation.”

While Harris and President Joe Biden have faced criticism for some immigration strategies, their administration ceased the practice of detaining families. When rumors floated last year about possibly reviving this practice, 383 groups implored Biden to maintain his inaugural commitment to “pursue just, compassionate, and humane immigration policies.”

During Biden’s term, the administration halted large-scale workplace immigration raids and eventually ended the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which had barred asylum seekers from entering the U.S. Homan suggests the upcoming Trump administration should reinstate these policies.

With Trump’s inauguration approaching, Biden faces pressure to “use the power of the pen to safeguard those seeking refuge from the impending deportation mechanism that threatens the human rights of our immigrant neighbors and those dreaming of sanctuary here,” as stated by Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA, earlier this month.

The Post notes that among the hard-liners in the new administration, Homan is particularly aware of the government’s limitations in fulfilling massive deportation promises and the potential political repercussions.

These hard-liners include the likes of Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, designated to head the Department of Homeland Security; Stephen Miller, the architect of family separation, serving as the president-elect’s homeland security advisor and deputy chief of staff for policy; and Caleb Vitello, the next acting director of ICE, previously pushed by Miller for a role at the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

“We need to build family facilities,” Homan told the newspaper, also noting, “We need to show the American people we can manage this without being inhumane… We must retain the trust of the American public.”

Critics warn that despite Trump’s recent electoral victories, pursuing these severe immigration policies, including detaining migrant families in what some call “concentration camps,” could provoke public outrage.

“Decent people worldwide will despise this country… and rightfully so,” media columnist and Brooklyn College professor Eric Alterman commented online in response to the Post‘s report.

Author and New York University adjunct associate professor Helio Fred Garcia remarked, “Trump’s upcoming border czar previews performative cruelty. In the first term, this included kidnapping children from their parents and deporting the parents to their home countries, with no record of where these children belonged. A crime against humanity.”

ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt, who has argued many significant immigration cases, told the Post that “the incoming administration refuses to recognize the severe harm inflicted on families and small children previously and appears determined to once again target families for unnecessary suffering.”

“The electorate may have supported mass deportations in principle,” he added, “but I doubt they endorsed further family separations or the needless cruelty inflicted on children.”