This article is the first in a three-part series featuring remarks from the annual National Conservatism Conference 2025 held September 2-4 in Washington D.C.
Border Czar Tom Homan has only been on the job a few months. But in that short time, history has already been made.
“President Trump’s [border] policies are saving thousands of lives, and nobody’s talking about it – especially the fake media,” Homan told attendees of the National Conservatism Conference on Wednesday.
“We have the most secure border in the history of the nation, and lives are being saved every day.”
Homan recalled his anger during the Biden administration, knowing the government’s policies were harming women and children.
“For four years I woke up knowing, ‘How many women got raped last night? How many children died making that journey? How many women and children were sex trafficked across the border? How many known and suspected terrorists came across the border?’”
Roughly 31% of women who immigrate illegally to the United States with the help of the cartels are sexually assaulted, Homan shared.
“The Biden administration intentionally unsecured the most secure border in American history,” he emphasized. “They did the complete opposite of what they know worked and was required,” Homan said. “This wasn’t an accident. It was by design.”
Homan compared the Biden and Trump administration’s immigration policies. Under the previous administration,
- A historic record number of illegal aliens – over 4,000 – died making the journey to the United States.
- A quarter-million Americans died from fentanyl coming across the border.
- Sex trafficking was at an all-time high.
- Cartels made a record amount of money trafficking illegal aliens, women and children, and drugs.
“There was nothing ‘humane’ about that administration,” Homan lamented. “This is sickening, what the last administration did. I don’t want to hear another word about the cruelty of the Trump administration.”
For these reasons, it was easy to answer the call when President Trump asked him to serve in his second administration as the White House Border Czar. He had previously served for 30 years as a border patrol agent.
Upon his return, the president asked Homan to take care of three things:
- Securing the Southern Border.
- Running the mass deportation program.
- Finding 300,000 children the Biden administration lost.
President Trump took office on January 20, 2025, immediately issuing several executive orders cracking down on illegal immigration. Since then, encounters along the Southern Border have fallen by 96%, Homan said.
Under the Biden administration, between 10,000 and 15,000 illegal immigrants were illegally entering the U.S. every day. On Tuesday, September 2, that number was just 162. “All arrested. Nobody released. All returned,” Homan shared. Publicly available data from CBP shows how encounters with illegal aliens along the Southwest Land Border have fallen dramatically since President Trump’s inauguration.
Photo Credit: U.S. CBP.
The number of known “gotaways” – illegal aliens who evaded capture by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) – has also fallen from an average of 1,800 per day under the Biden administration.
On September 2, there were just 16 aliens who evaded CBP, the border czar shared.
“[We have] the most secure border in the history of this nation, and the data proves it,” Homan said. “Whether they like it or not, that’s just a stone-cold fact.”
In addition to greatly reducing the number of illegal immigrants trying to enter the country, the Trump administration has also ramped up the number of individuals being arrested and deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to the tune of thousands per day.
Homan said roughly 70% of illegal immigrants arrested by ICE have criminal records. The other 30% are gang members without a criminal history, national security threats, and illegal immigrants with final orders of removal (who have been ordered deported by a court).
“Let me make it clear, we are prioritizing public safety threats and national security threats. … But if you’re in the country illegally, you’re not off the table,” he added, noting that a lot of work remains to be done.
There are roughly 600,000 illegal immigrants with criminal histories walking the streets in America, and another 1.4 million have final orders of removal. The border wall still needs to be completed, and the 300,000 missing children must be found – which Homan said is the “toughest job.”
These children crossed the border without a parent or guardian, and many of which were then released to unvetted sponsors. “President Trump wants to find every one of them,” Homan said. “Many of the [sponsor’s] addresses we’re going to now are parking lots … a grocery store, a church.”
“But we’re working out there every day. … [We’re] looking for them to make sure they’re not victims of sex trafficking and labor trafficking. … We’re trying to save children we know are living a life of hell every day.”
“Every day, the men and women of ICE are making this country safer,” Homan said. “That’s just a stone-cold fact.”
Related articles and resources:
Border Crackdown Discourages ‘Fraudulent Families,’ Child Trafficking
Crackdown on Illegal Immigration Protects Children
Trump Sees Lowest Border Numbers in History: ‘The Invasion is Over’
Trump Executive Orders Target Illegal Immigration, Troops Sent to Border
American Immigration System Loses Contact with Tens of Thousands of Migrant Children
Photo from Getty Images.
