Who is Tom Homan? Trump's border czar and Immigration enforcement veteran heads to Minneapolis; all you need to know

The widespread outrage caused by the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a US Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis has kept the Trump administration on its toes. The Midwestern city is on the boil following the killing of Pretti, an ICU nurse, as the incident has become the epicenter of opposition to US president Donald Trump’s controversial immigration crackdown.

Amid protests and growing calls by Republicans and Democrats alike for an independent investigation into the incident, Trump announced that his border czar, Tom Homan, will go to Minneapolis this week. Protests across the city have intensified following videos and eyewitness accounts of Pretti's fatal shooting that directly contradict the Trump administration’s official narrative.

The immigration enforcement tactics have drawn more scrutiny since agents fatally shot a different Minneapolis resident in her car weeks earlier. Earlier in January 2026, a woman identified as Renee Good was fatally shot behind the wheel of her vehicle by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.

All you need to know about Homan ahead of his arrival in the Twin Cities

Homan, Trump’s border czar, has been in immigration enforcement for four decades. The 64-year-old began his career in 1984 as a Border Patrol agent before moving to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2003 when the agency was created as part of Homeland Security, according to news agency AP.

He was a relatively low-key but influential figure on immigration enforcement in the Obama administration. According to AP, Homan headed ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations arm. It was tasked with tracking down people with outstanding deportation orders and removing them from the country.

Despite unwavering enthusiasm for Trump and withering criticism of President Joe Biden, he is seen by some as a voice of restraint and moderation compared with some in the current administration.

Homan, who is widely associated with immigration enforcement actions that separated families, was given a Presidential Rank Award by the Obama administration to tout his efficacy in 2015. Under Obama, the U.S. carried out 432,000 deportations in 2013, the highest annual total since records were kept, AP reported. Deportations under the first Trump administration never topped 350,000.

How Homan became leading figure in Trump administration

Homan was at his retirement party in January 2017 when Trump’s choice for homeland security secretary, John Kelly, asked him to stay at ICE. Homan accepted after taking a weekend to think about it and became a leading figure in the Trump administration through four tumultuous years.

Homan and Trump were on the same page

When he was appointed border czar, Homan was seen as a leader who not only aligned with Trump ideologically but who also had significant practical experience in immigration policy.

Homan portrays illegal immigration as black-and-white and has made no apologies for Trump’s policy of targeting everyone in the country without status, not just those with criminal histories, public safety concerns, and recent border crossings.

“If you’re in the country illegally, you should be concerned,” he said in a 2018 interview with The Associated Press. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be. Just like if I go speeding down the highway, are you worried about getting a ticket? If you lie on your taxes, are you worried about an audit?“

"People ask me all the time, Why did you remove that guy who’s been here 12 years and has two U.S. citizen kids?. I said because he had his due process,” he told the AP. “People think I enjoy this. I’m a father. People don’t think this bothers me. I feel bad about the plight of these people. Don’t get me wrong, but I have a job to do.”

He also said, in a separate interview, that worksite immigration enforcement operations, which the Biden administration largely stopped, would be necessary. “I will run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen,” Homan said in 2024.

Homan survived bribery accusations

The White House stood behind Homan in September following reports that he accepted $50,000 from undercover agents posing as businesspeople during an FBI operation, AP reported. Reports led to a bribery investigation that was ultimately shut down by Trump's Justice Department.

Homan was accused of accepting the cash during a 2024 encounter with agents posing as businesspeople seeking government contracts that Homan suggested he could help them get in a second Trump term.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt characterized Homan’s encounter with the undercover agents as an effort by the Biden administration to “entrap one of the president’s top allies and supporters, someone who they knew very well would be taking a government position,” as quoted by AP.