Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will be coming back to the administration as a "border czar," President Donald Trump said Friday, as he "really wants" to be involved with the border.
The announcement took the hosts of Fox News' "Fox and Friends," where Trump was speaking during a lengthy interview, by surprise, as Homan became a network contributor after retiring from the Trump administration in June 2018.
Trump sad Homan will report directly to him and will work from the White House, but will make frequent visits at the border.
Homan is well known as a hardliner on immigration, even though Trump on Friday said the measures Mexico has been taking have slowed down immigration.
"Mexico has been doing a terrific job," said Trump. "Hey, 6,000 soldiers, and if it doesn't work out, then we go back to very strong measures, and I don't want to have to do that."
Trump also said Friday that the border wall is "going up very rapidly" and that more than 400 miles will be up by the end of next year.
"The wall is very important," said Trump. "It's hard to breach it; it's high, strong, powerful, and going up at much lower cost than the wall that was planned prior to me getting there."
The wall will be built despite obstacles by Democrats, said Trump.
"We won the lawsuit on the wall, brought by (Speaker) Nancy Pelosi," said Trump, adding that "maybe that's criminal" that Pelosi is "allowing drug dealers and gang members into our country...you know how easy it would be to solve if we met 15 minutes with Democrats, you can solve the asylum (issue) and loopholes."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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