Who is Tom Homan, Trump’s ‘border tsar’ deployed to Minneapolis?

US President Donald Trump has deployed his “border tsar” Tom Homan to lead on-the-ground immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, after two US citizens were shot dead by federal agents in the city in less than a month.

The White House has said Homan, who arrived in Minneapolis on Tuesday, will now be the “main point of contact on the ground” and will meet with city officials.

It comes as Gregory Bovino, the US border patrol chief and public face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation drive in cities across the US, is expected to leave the city along with some of his agents.

Homan, 64, is seen both as a key Trump ally and someone with decades of experience in immigration policy across both Republican and Democratic administrations.

He is also one of the most vocal defenders of Trump’s immigration policy and mass deportation drive.

A native of upstate New York, Homan began his career in law enforcement as a police officer before joining border patrol in 1984 in southern California.

He joined what was then called the Immigration and Naturalization Service four years later, climbing through the ranks of US immigration enforcement over multiple years.

By 2013 – under the Obama administration – he held a little-known but influential post heading the Enforcement and Removal Operations arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice)

Homan had planned to retire in 2017, just days before Trump’s first administration began.

An abrupt call at his retirement party from incoming Chief of Staff John Kelly changed those plans.

“I remember him saying, I know it was bad timing, but the president-elect wanted me to stay and run [ICE],” Homan recalled in an interview last year with the Daily Caller. “Monday morning, I called [Kelly] and said I want to come back.”

A similar call, this time from current Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, again brought him out of retirement in 2024 ahead of the second administration.

While “border tsar” is an informal term and position, it refers to an executive-branch role overseeing border and immigration policy across multiple agencies. It is not Senate confirmed, and is a policy position directly appointed by the serving president.

So far in Trump’s second term, Homan has been a vocal defender of the president’s broad deportation goals, vowing to target the “worst of the worst” and challenge the notion that “those who enforce the law are the bad guys and those who break the law are the victims”.

But in practice, enforcing immigration laws and attempting to focus on public safety threats has also ensnared other undocumented migrants who have no criminal background – a fact that Homan acknowledges and blames on “sanctuary cities” that do not work with federal immigration efforts. Officials have said the act of being in the US illegally is a crime in itself.

“We’re not going to instruct ICE not to arrest [someone] unless there’s a serious crime,” he told reporters in July at the White House, where he makes regular appearances.

“What message does that send the whole world? Go ahead and enter the country,” Homan added.

In September, the White House swiftly came to Homan’s defence after reports emerged that he was accused in a bribery case that was ultimately dropped by the justice department when Trump returned to office.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described that case – which allegedly saw Homan accept $50,000 (£36,3000) from undercover agents – as an effort to “entrap” a key Trump ally.

Unlike Homan, Bovino has spent almost his entire law enforcement career in border cities, having first joined Border Patrol in 1996 and serving in a variety of US domestic postings as well as overseas in Honduras and Africa.

The North Carolina native rose to prominence in Trump’s second term, taking the lead during immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans and Minneapolis.

Bovino has been serving as “commander-at-large” in Border Patrol – an informal role outside of the organisation’s formal hierarchy. Border Patrol is one of several immigration-centred agencies that operates under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Bovino reportedly answers directly to DHS head Kristi Noem. In his informal role, he works alongside officials like the Chief of Border Patrol, a position held by Michael Banks, and the Customs and Border Protection commissioner, a position currently held by Rodney Scott.

Bovino’s tactics have been both controversial, particularly the aggressive “turn and burn” method of making swift arrests before protesters can arrive to an area.

“We’re going to turn and burn to that next target and the next and the next and the next,” he told the AP of the tactic. “We’re not going to stop.”

Bovino has also earned a reputation as an official willing to clash with lawmakers.

In recent days, for example, Bovino has publicly sparred with lawmakers from both parties who expressed concern about his operations in Minneapolis.

Bovino being replaced with Homan in Minneapolis is seen by some political observers as recognition from the White House that an urgent change was needed amid growing public concern.

In practice, however, that change is ultimately unlikely to alter the administration’s approach to immigration enforcement.

“Homan has more years at ICE and doing interior enforcement,” former DHS immigration official Lora Ries told the BBC of his work in many American cities not near the border. “This isn’t a surprise to me.”

Ries, now head of the border security and immigration centre at the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation in Washington, added that while Homan has said he’s sought to focus “on the worst, first”, all deportable undocumented migrants will continue to be “on the table”.

For immigration activists, Homan’s career – which has included staunch defence of Trump’s family separation policy, which led to separating children from parents who are in the country illegally – also means that they see little practical difference between him and Bovino.

“I’m not sure it means much. Homan is a career deportation advocate, and the architect of family separation,” said Michael Lukens, the executive director of the Amica Center, an organisation which helps immigrants with legal access and services.

“I think the difference is that he is more polished than Bovino. He is better at speaking to the press, and stakeholders,” he added. “He’s better for what they need, someone to paint their actions as not what they are.”

“This is much more about whether the White House sees this as a political issue, not a human one,” Lukens added. “But there is no world in which Homan is a moderate.”