Trump leaves immigration policy in the hands of three anti-immigration hawks: Miller, Homan and Noem

Donald Trump is returning to the White House with a long list of promises to fulfill on immigration: carrying out the largest deportation in history, ending the DACA and parole programs, closing the southern border with Mexico… And it seems that he has every intention of carrying them out. To do so, he has named a trifecta of faithful anti-immigration hawks to three key positions: Stephen Miller as White House deputy chief of staff; Tom Homan, as “border czar”; and Kristi Noem, as secretary of Homeland Security. Together, they will be in charge of making his most radical immigration policies a reality.

Here’s what each of them could bring to the next Trump administration, in line with what they have indicated both in the months leading up to the Republican’s victory and in interviews following their appointments, along with the role they played during his first term.

Stephen Miller: The Mastermind Behind Trump's Immigration Policies

The next White House deputy chief of staff for policy will be charged with overseeing Trump’s administration policies, especially when it comes to immigration. He will play an architect’s role, ensuring that the president-elect’s policies are not only feasible but also that they endure despite the numerous legal challenges and lawsuits that will arise against them. It will be a role similar to the one he played during the Republican’s first term, when he was the public face of Trump’s most radical immigration plans, such as the separation of thousands of families at the border in 2018.

His appointment does not require Senate confirmation, so he can get to work immediately. In fact, he is already doing so: he has participated in the first planning meetings for Trump's transition since his election victory. And even before the Republican secured his return to the presidency, Miller was part of his closest team during the campaign as an advisor and even a speechwriter.

Although Trump did not specify during his campaign how he would fulfill his promise to carry out the largest deportation in U.S. history, Miller has been working on detailed plans for doing so for years. In an interview with The New York Times last year, he outlined this and other immigration policies by the Republican. For the large-scale deportation of millions of illegal immigrants, he said that massive raids would be carried out in workplaces and public spaces with the goal of arresting the largest number of people at once. Such an operation would involve the participation of all federal and state law enforcement agencies, including the National Guard and local police officers. Once detained, Miller continued, the immigrants will be held in “vast facilities” that will function as “stalling centers” for the immigrants while their cases progress and they wait to be transferred to other countries.

Beyond detentions and deportations, Miller also said in the interview that Trump would try again to end DACA (the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy), since the Supreme Court majority that blocked his last attempt no longer exists. In addition, the president-elect will recover some of the policies he already implemented four years ago: he will seek to reestablish the so-called Remain in Mexico, an agreement with the neighboring country for asylum seekers to remain there while their applications are processed in the United States, and he will promote the reactivation of “safe third country” agreements with several Latin American nations. Under this type of agreement, the signatory nations agree to welcome asylum seekers from other countries and allow them to request asylum there.

He will also invoke the public health emergency powers law known as Title 42 to refuse to accept asylum claims, as he did during the coronavirus pandemic. This time, the Republican will cite “severe strains of influenza, tuberculosis, scabies, other respiratory diseases like RSV and so on” to invoke the law, Miller explained. “Or just a general point that mass migration is a threat to public health and transmits various contagious diseases,” he added. “The point is that President Trump will do whatever it takes,” Miller summarized. “Trump will unleash the vast arsenal of federal powers to carry out the most spectacular immigration crackdown.”

Tom Homan: A “humanitarian operation” with deportations of entire families

While Miller will be the architect, Homan will be the executor. The next “border czar” — a position that also does not require Senate confirmation — is also another staunch immigration hawk. During Trump’s first presidency, Homan headed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and promoted the policy of separating children from their families at the border. Now, he is back in charge as the person in charge of “all deportations of illegal aliens,” as Trump himself said when announcing his appointment.

How will he do it? His plans seem to contradict each other. For one, before his appointment, Homan collaborated on the so-called Project 2025, the conservatives’ program for the next Republican president, which Trump distanced himself from during his campaign. The document details that mass deportations should include raids on homes, workplaces, schools, hospitals, churches and courts. It mentions the elimination of due process and ways to turn thousands of people who are in the country with legal permits into illegal immigrants, among other plans.

However, Homan now insists that the mass expulsion “will be a humanitarian operation,” as he recently assured Fox News. His plans, he has said, will include “targeted arrests.” “It’s not going to be a mass sweep of neighborhoods. It’s not going to be building concentration camps,” he told CBS News. “It will be targeted arrests. We will know who we are going to arrest, where we are most likely to find them, based on numerous vetting processes,” he added.

In that interview, which aired before the election, Homan said deportations would focus on people with prior criminal convictions or those involved in criminal networks. But when asked if there was a way to carry out mass deportations without separating families, he said, “Of course there is. Families can be deported together.”

Kristi Noem: “My message to illegal immigrants: Call me when you are an American”

Noem's appointment is the only one of this trifecta that will have to be approved by the Senate, a process that can lead to delays but that should not be the case this time, since the Republicans have a majority in the upper chamber. The next secretary of Homeland Security comes to her new post having supported Trump's immigration policies during the campaign and during his first term. Now, she assumes the responsibility of managing the country's southern border, a task in which she will collaborate closely with Miller and Homan.

During her time as governor of South Dakota since 2019, Noem has defended her fellow Republican governors in their efforts to crack down on immigrants in their respective states. In particular, she has aligned herself with Texas’ Greg Abbott in his crusade to close the southern state’s border and transport thousands of migrants to Democratic-controlled cities. This is something Trump highlighted when announcing her appointment: “She was the first governor to send National Guard troops to help Texas combat the Biden immigration crisis, and she did so on up to eight occasions.”

The president-elect forgot to mention that Noem offered to personally bring more razor wire to her Texas counterpart to stop what she called “an invasion.” The Republican also refused to take in immigrants in her state in 2021, as the Biden-Harris administration struggled to manage a growing influx of unaccompanied minors at the southern border. At the time, she posted on X: “South Dakota won’t be taking any illegal immigrants the Biden Administration wants to relocate. My message to illegal immigrants: Call me when you’re an American.”

In addition, during her time in Congress as House representative, she supported Trump’s controversial measure that in 2017 banned the arrival of immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. Like Trump, Noem called them all terrorists.

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