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Tom Homan, the Border Czar of the White House, responded this Thursday with a single word when asked how many more deportations are needed to restore the United States as a country of legal citizens: "millions".
In an interview with Will Cain on Fox News, Homan firmly denied the rumors that the Trump administration was scaling back its immigration enforcement efforts, stating that he expects deportation numbers to rise while border crossings decrease.
“Look… I see this all the time, there are 12 million illegal foreigners in the country, we used that figure 25 years ago. I believe it's well over 20 million. So we’re going to do everything we can to arrest as many people as possible,” stated Homan.
When questioned about the logistical feasibility of operations on such a scale, the official responded firmly: “I will try with all my might.”
These statements come just two days after Homan announced mass deportations in Phoenix, Arizona, during the Border Security Expo, where he asserted: "Mass deportations are on the horizon. This will be a good year."
At the same event, Homan referred to the hardline critics of the MAGA movement as "keyboard warriors" who consider the deportations carried out so far to be insufficient; and he warned them:
"For those who say that President Trump is weakening on mass deportations, they have no idea what they're talking about. They haven't seen anything yet."
Homan also threatened to "flood the area" with agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in states that do not cooperate with the federal government.
“What is going to happen to places like New York when people approve this ridiculous legislation to not cooperate with us? We are going to flood the area. You will see more ICE agents than ever before,” he warned.
The governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, responded by recalling that Trump himself had promised not to send agents en masse to her state without her request: "I'm not asking for it."
Meanwhile, Homan acknowledged to reporters outside the White House that ICE has arrested U.S. citizens during its operations, although he clarified that they do not deport them.
“Have American citizens been briefly detained on suspicion? I'm sure. I'm sure. But we do not deport American citizens,” he said.
This admission comes amidst a growing controversy.
In March, Representative Pramila Jayapal presented to the House Judiciary Committee four citizens who reported having been detained by ICE without being charged with any crime.
According to an analysis from the University of California, Berkeley, public arrests increased by 1,000% during the first year of Trump's second term.
To expand its operational capacity, the administration is hiring 10,000 new immigration enforcement agents, of which about 7,000 are already in the field and 3,000 are in training, with instructions to focus the "vast majority" in sanctuary cities.
Moreover, the government acquired 11 warehouses across the country to expand the detention capacity to 100,000 spaces, with an investment of 45,000 million dollars.
For the Cuban community, the impact has been particularly notable: the arrests of Cubans by ICE increased by 463% between the end of 2024 and the end of 2025, and lawyers are warning about the implications for Cuban migrants due to the intensification of operations.
At least 530 Cubans have been repatriated on direct flights to Havana so far in 2026.
The MAGA movement presented a 21-point plan in March demanding the deportation of at least one million people per year, a figure that the Trump administration aims to achieve for the current fiscal year and the next.
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