
As promised during his reelection campaign, Donald Trump’s first week in office saw a mammoth effort to launch mass deportations of “illegal immigrant criminals.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the onset of the roundups saw 538 individuals arrested on Thursday (Jan. 23), and on Friday (Jan. 24) several military aircraft were loaded with deportees and chartered to Guatemala and Mexico.
“The largest massive deportation operation in history is well underway. Promises made. Promises kept,” Leavitt wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. Overseeing the fulfillment of the removal of non-citizens is the Republican politician’s “border czar” Tom Homan. The former acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement previously worked under Trump’s first administration.
In a teaser for an upcoming ABC News “This Week” interview, Homan confirmed that flights transporting deportees will be a daily occurrence with promises of the mission expanding.
“The number of arrests nationwide, as we open up the aperture, right now it’s concentrated on public safety interests, national security threats. That’s a smaller population,” he said. It is estimated that 11 million illegal immigrants are in the country. “We’re gonna do this on priority basis, President Trump’s promise, but as that aperture opens, it’ll be more arrests nationwide,” he added.
The veteran government official was tasked with securing America’s southern and northern borders as well as maritime and aviation security. In a Truth Social post, Trump boasted there was “nobody better at policing and controlling borders” than Homan, who would be “in charge of all deportation of illegal aliens back to their country of origin.” The forthcoming wide reach of policing is leaving no room for exceptions.
“If you’re in the country illegally, you’re on the table because it’s not okay to, you know, violate laws of this country. You gotta remember, every time you enter this country illegally, you violated the crime under United States code 1325,” said Homan. He doubled down on the stance, declaring, “It’s a crime, so if you’re in the country illegally, you got a problem, and that’s why I’m hoping those who are in the country illegally who have not been ordered to be removed by the federal judge should leave.”
The full “This Week” interview will air on Sunday (Jan. 26), laying out greater details about the controversial deportations to come.