The Trump administration is planning to use military aircraft every day to help carry out what President Donald Trump and his “border czar,” Tom Homan, have promised will be the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, Homan told ABC News.
In an interview with ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz, Homan said that only days after Trump took office, the U.S. government for the first time ever used military aircraft to transport migrants back to their home country, and it will now be a daily occurrence.
Trump Administration ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan talks with Martha Raddatz of ABC News, Jan. 24, 2025.
ABC News
According to U.S. officials, the U.S. military on Thursday flew more than 150 migrants to Guatemala on two separate flights. But Homan made clear that the military flights are just one part of a much broader plan.
He claimed that – unlike under the Biden administration – Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are now free to arrest any of the estimated more than 11 million immigrants in the country without legal status, not just those identified as priorities for deportation for being convicted criminals or other public safety threats.
Guatemalan migrants descend from an US military plane after being deported from US at the Guatemalan Air Force Base in Guatemala City, Jan. 24, 2025.
Guatemalan Migration Institute/AFP via Getty Images
Watch more of Martha Raddatz’ interview with Tom Homan Sunday on ABC’s ‘This Week’
“If you’re in the country illegally, you’re on the table because it’s not okay to, you know, violate the laws of this country,” he said.
Homan said that while the Trump administration’s enforcement actions are currently prioritizing public safety and national security threats, they’re going to “open up the aperture” in the weeks and months ahead.
Illegal aliens await takeoff for a removal flight at the Tucson International Airport, Ariz., Jan. 23, 2025.
Senior Airman Devlin Bishop/DoD
“As that aperture opens, there’ll be more arrests nationwide,” he said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection security agents guide a group of illegal aliens to board a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft assigned to the 60th Air Mobility Wing for a removal flight at Fort Bliss, Texas, Jan. 23, 2025.
Sgt. 1st Class Nicholas J. De La/DoD
Homan also offered another possible solution for “those who are in the country illegally”: They “should leave” on their own, he said.
Early in the Biden administration, then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued guidance to immigration enforcement officers discouraging them from “spending resources to remove those who do not pose a threat” and noting that many undocumented immigrants inside the country “have been here for generations and contributed to our country’s well-being,” as he put it in a statement at the time.
Homan, however, noted that the nation’s immigration laws were passed by Congress to be enforced, and said immigrants without legal status are violating those laws.
More of Homan’s interview with Raddatz will air Sunday on “This Week.”
