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Trump's border czar Tom Homan wants a tip line to catch immigrants in US illegally

Tom Homan, President-elect Donald Trump’sincoming border czar, told NBC News on Friday afternoon that he is pitching the "fresh idea" of a hotline for Americans to report immigrants they believe are here illegally and have committed crimes.

“I want a place where American citizens can call and report,” Homan, the former head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said. “We need to take care of the American people. We need to make sure they have an outlet to help report child traffickers, forced labor traffickers. We want to give them an opportunity to be a part of the fix.” 

But Immigration and Customs Enforcement has had a tip line for more than 20 years that takes in an average of 15,000 calls a month, according to the agency. ICE invites tips on illegal immigration along with a range of other legal violations such as drug smuggling and document fraud.

"It is for reporting crimes, everything from child pornography, COVID-19 fraud, illegal immigration, human trafficking, money laundering, terrorism, worksite enforcement of immigration laws," Alex Nowrasteh, immigration policy analyst at libertarian think tank the Cato Institute, said.

"It already exists," Nowrasteh added. "I don't know what Homan was talking about in terms of having a fresh, new idea."

U.S. Customs and Border Protection also refers people to the ICE tip line to report suspected criminal activity.

The Trump transition team did not answer an email asking for additional information about Homan's proposal or how his hotline would differ from what already exists. Homan did not respond to an attempt to reach him through his charitable foundation.

Nowrasteh said the tip line likely isn't a major part of immigration enforcement.

"It probably wastes the time of a handful of employees at ICE to have to wade through these 15,000 calls a month and to take them and to write them down. Perhaps it leads to a few tips," Nowrasteh said. "But I have never heard of anything publicly that has come up related to a big operation started by a tip on the ICE hot hotline. Doesn't mean it didn't happen, but I've never heard of it."

'The party's over'

Some immigration skeptics say that having a tip line focused more specifically on illegal immigration would help raise public awareness.

"It seems like not only is it worth a try, but it's also an important message to send. Part of the point of it is to make it clear to illegal aliens that they're not untouchable, that the party's over," Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for reduced immigration said. "It's useful, if nothing else, to send a message, both to the public and to illegal immigrants, that just because you're here and not raping anybody doesn't mean that you're untouchable. I think that's an important message to send even if they only get a handful of actual usable leads."

Like previous administrations, Trump has said he will first focus on deporting immigrants in the country illegally who have committed a crime. Most research finds that immigrants in the United States are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.

As border czar, Homan will oversee deportation policy for immigrants who entered the country without legal permission. He will not be a part of existing immigration enforcement agencies and it isn't clear what the guidelines of his authority will be. Homan will not need Senate confirmation.

'Turn against their neighbor'

Jennie Murray, CEO of the National Immigration Forum, said chasing tips of unknown quality could use up valuable resources that are already stretched thin.

"We don't have all the resources in the world, of course, when it comes to law enforcement, and we really need to make sure that authorities can focus on those that are violent and be able to remove those folks and not to follow a tip line that may be leading them in all different types of directions, or leading them to go house to house looking for undocumented immigrants," Murray, whose group works to build a moderate coalition for immigration reform, said.

ICE deported more than 270,000 noncitizens in fiscal 2024, the highest level in a decade, according to its most recent annual report.

With an annual budget of $9 billion, ICE's 6,050 deportation officers are responsible for a caseload of 7.6 million immigrants. The number of deportation officers has remained steady since 2014, while their caseload has surged.

Immigrant rights advocates say that the point of proposing a new hotline is to embolden people who are uncomfortable with immigration.

"Ultimately, what he is saying is that he wants the average American to turn against their neighbor," said Anabel Mendoza, spokeswoman for immigrant rights organization United We Dream. "He wants them to racially profile, look at their neighbor and say, I don't like you being here, and therefore I am going to use this quote, unquote power that I think Tom Homan is trying to give the average person."

To Tom Wong, director of the University of California, San Diego's U.S. Immigration Policy Center, Homan's proposal stirred memories of the Minutemen militia groups that patrolled the Southern border for years to help Border Patrol agents.

"Such a hotline will turn citizens against immigrants, embolden vigilante groups, and serves as a recipe for racial profiling and increased discrimination. Undocumented communities will also be further driven into the shadows as citizens become part of the immigration enforcement apparatus," Wong said.

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