In a pair of deeply personal interviews this week, Border Czar Tom Homan laid bare the devastating human toll of illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border, recounting harrowing stories that have shaped his decades-long crusade for tougher border security. Speaking on "The Alex Marlow Show" podcast in Washington, DC, Homan’s voice cracked as he described a case that continues to haunt him: a nine-year-old migrant girl, repeatedly and violently raped by cartel smugglers during her journey to the United States. "Now that little girl, her life will never be the same. Everything innocent and pure was ripped from her," Homan told Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow, fighting back tears as he shared the memory (Breitbart News).
This single case, Homan said, is just one of many that fuel his relentless advocacy for securing the nation’s borders. "So, that’s why I fight hard. And a lot of people ask, 'Why do you get emotional when you’re on TV?' Why do you get emotional in front of Congress? Because we can fix this," he said. The former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has never shied away from public emotion when discussing the border crisis, insisting that the suffering he has witnessed is both preventable and intolerable.
Homan, who has come out of retirement twice to serve under President Donald Trump, admitted that he anticipated the backlash and personal risks his role would entail. "I mean, this is the second time I came out of retirement for the president. It’s hard to say no to the president of the United States and help him fix something where thousands of lives have been lost," he explained on the podcast (Newsmax). The cost of this commitment has been steep: Homan revealed that he has not lived with his family for months due to death threats directed at him, a sacrifice he says his loved ones understand because of the "important mission" he believes in.
But the threats and vitriol, Homan argued, pale in comparison to the horrors faced by migrants and border communities. He described, in chilling detail, the kinds of tragedies he has encountered firsthand: "If they held the dead children I’ve held, talked to little girls as young as 9 who were raped multiple times by handlers from the cartel, standing on the back of a tractor-trailer when 19 people are at your feet because they baked to death, including a 5-year-old boy, running an operation in Arizona where alien smuggling cartels are ripping bodies from each other with drugs, and when someone couldn’t pay their smuggling fees, they’d torture them and call their relatives and let them listen while they torture them and kill them because they couldn’t pay the fees. These are just a few things," he recounted (Newsmax).
For Homan, these stories are not just statistics or distant tragedies—they are the daily realities that drive his sense of urgency. He described waking up each morning "very pissed off" as he considered the overnight toll: "How many people died last night? How many women or young little girls got sexually assaulted last night? How many have been forced into labor to pay off smuggling fees? How many pounds of fentanyl came across last night to kill Americans? How many people from the terrorist countries got in last night? How much money did the cartel make last night?" (Breitbart News).
Homan’s career has spanned multiple administrations and political climates. Once respected by both Democrats and Republicans, he was recognized in 2016 by President Barack Obama with the prestigious Presidential Rank Award for his effectiveness in enforcing immigration laws. However, he now finds himself a polarizing figure, currently under investigation by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee over allegations of bribery—an inquiry that underscores the contentiousness of the immigration debate in Washington.
Despite the political crossfire, Homan remains adamant that the policies enacted under President Trump made a dramatic difference. He credited Trump’s border security measures with reducing illegal crossings by a staggering 96%, which he argues directly translated into saved lives. "Under President Trump, when 96% less people aren’t coming, how many women aren’t being raped, how many children aren’t dying making that journey, how many Americans aren’t dying? Trump’s policies are saving thousands of lives every year," Homan asserted (Newsmax).
His criticism of the current administration is equally pointed. Homan accused President Biden and his team of intentionally rolling back security measures that, in his view, had made the border safer than ever before. "I came back, we had the most secure border in the history of this nation under Trump 45. The Biden administration came in and unsecured it on purpose; it wasn’t by accident, it was by design," Homan claimed (Breitbart News). He believes the result has been an increase in deaths, assaults, and cartel profits—all preventable, he insists, with a return to stricter enforcement.
Yet, Homan’s message is not just about policy; it’s about the human cost he has personally witnessed. He recounted the story of a tragic incident in which 19 migrants died from heat exposure in a sealed tractor-trailer, including a five-year-old boy. He also described the brutal tactics of smuggling cartels in Arizona, who, he said, would torture and kill those unable to pay their fees, sometimes forcing family members to listen over the phone. These stories, he argued, should move even the harshest critics to reconsider their stance. "If they held the dead children I’ve held... These are just a few things," he repeated, underscoring the emotional weight he carries (Newsmax).
Despite the personal risks and the political heat, Homan says he remains undeterred. He believes the mission to secure the border is not just about law and order, but about saving lives—both American and migrant. He pointed out that many on the political left have shifted away from policies they once supported, but insisted that what matters most is reducing suffering and preventing tragedy. "The current president’s efforts have reduced human suffering, and that’s what matters," Homan concluded, though his broader criticism of the Biden administration’s approach was clear (Newsmax).
As the national debate over immigration intensifies and the 2024 election cycle looms, Homan’s testimony provides a stark, often heartbreaking reminder of what is at stake. His stories—raw, emotional, and unflinching—offer a window into the human cost of policy decisions made in Washington, and the personal sacrifices made by those tasked with enforcing them. For Homan, the fight for a secure border is not just a political battle, but a moral one, shaped by the faces and stories of those he has tried, sometimes in vain, to save.