Incoming border czar Tom Homan says the White House will need $86 billion from Congress to kick-start the incoming Trump administration’s mass deportation plan — and that’s only the beginning.
Homan told Fox Business on Tuesday that while the president-elect’s deportation plan will be “expensive,” he assured taxpayers it will save them money in the long run.
The former acting ICE director recently said he wants to increase the number of detention beds from the current capacity of several tens of thousands to 100,000.
“Congress needs to fund this deportation operation,” Homan said. “It’s going to be expensive, and everybody is focused on how expensive it’s gonna be. We need to understand, it’s gonna be expensive in the beginning, but in the long run it’s going to save billions of dollars in taxpayers’ money.
“We need more resources. I pray that Congress during the reconciliation period gives us a budget to do this with,” he said.
“We are talking about the biggest national security vulnerability this country has,” Homan added, saying the federal government needs the funding for additional detention beds, deportation flights, other transportation to get illegal migrants out of the US and medical care during the process.
Trump vowed Sunday that on day one of his return to the White House, his administration will start “the largest deportation operation in American history.
“On my first day back in the Oval Office, I will sign a historic slate of executive orders to close our border to illegal aliens and stop the invasion of our country,” Trump proclaimed to a friendly crowd at Turning Point Action’s AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, Ariz.
“And on that same day, we will begin the largest deportation operation in American history, larger even than that of President Dwight D Eisenhower,” he said.
Eisenhower oversaw the deportation of hundreds of thousands of mainly undocumented Mexican laborers in the 1950s.
Homan has been tapped to spearhead the current deportation effort, saying it will first focus resources on illegal migrants who have committed crimes.
The incoming border czar has also said the effort will not be stifled by “Sanctuary City” leaders who thwart federal immigration authorities with their liberal policies, saying, “We’re going to do the job with you or without you.”