Tom Homan is coming to Minneapolis to lead ICE. Who is he?

President Donald Trump has tapped his “border czar,” Tom Homan, to come to Minneapolis to oversee ICE operations.

Homan, 64, became the face of Trump’s immigration policy when the president began his second term. Homan, a staunch supporter of Trump, was on record advocating for deporting illegal immigrants and opposing sanctuary-city policies.

“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.”

Homan is expected to arrive in the Twin Cities on Jan. 27 to take over for Greg Bovino after federal agents over the weekend shot and killed 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti.

Pretti’s death sparked more outrage and protests that intensified in the days after his death, which was the second fatal shooting in January by federal agents participating in the Operation Metro Surge immigration enforcement.

Homan will be the point person working with local and state law enforcement and authorities “to subdue the chaos on the streets of Minneapolis,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a briefing on Jan. 26.

“Mr. Homan is someone who has been lauded for many, many decades for his experience working in law enforcement,” Leavitt said.

Homan began his career as a police officer in 1983 in West Carthage, N.Y. A year later he became a Border Patrol agent before moving to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2003 when the agency was created as part of the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

In 2014, during the Obama administration, Homan argued that separating parents from their children at the border would be an effective strategy to deter illegal crossings. The next year, President Barack Obama gave Homan a Presidential Rank Award for his efficacy.

In 2016, the Washington Post wrote, “Thomas Homan deports people. And he’s really good at it."

Homan was appointed as acting director of ICE in 2017 and retired the following year. In 2024, Trump said Homan would join his administration. That same year, Homan said, “I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen.”

Homan was the subject of an investigation where he was accused of accepting a $50,000 bribe from undercover agents posing as businessmen during an FBI operation. The money allegedly changed hands in 2024 as the businessmen were seeking government contracts, and Homan alleged he could help them during a second Trump term.