Border czar Tom Homan to delegate local law enforcement with ICE powers to aid in mass deportation plan

Tom Homan, the incoming border czar of President-elect Donald Trump, has been traveling the country meeting with local law enforcement agencies to prepare for mass deportations, a promise Trump made on the campaign trail. He said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would transfer some duties to local law enforcement agencies, allowing them to help with the removal of criminal aliens from the nation. Homan, the former acting ICE director during Trump's first White House term, has made it clear that illegal immigrants will be removed from the US, saying, "We're going to put a plan in place and secure this nation."

The 287(g) program is expected to be one of the methods by which the new administration augments its manpower as it prepares to initiate what it describes as the largest deportation effort in US history. It allows state and local law enforcement officers to assist in the enforcement of federal immigration law. However, it may also serve as a flashpoint for a legal dispute that is developing as Inauguration Day approaches.

"We're not waiting until January," Homan said during a Tuesday visit with local law enforcement in Texas, who recently vowed to "take the handcuffs off ICE," NBC News reported.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton incorporated the 287(g) program into the Immigration and Nationality Act. It grants ICE the authority to assign specific immigration officers responsibilities to state and local law enforcement officers. Upon the arrest of a suspect for a crime, a trained corrections officer has the ability to access an ICE database to obtain additional information regarding their immigration status and may detain the person for 48 hours before ICE decides to pick up the individual and start deportation procedures.

On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to require local law enforcement to assist with federal immigration enforcement. However, more and more Democratic lawmakers are pledging to disregard that. The Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance earlier this month that forbids the use of local resources for immigration enforcement, and the LA police chief said his officers would not assist the Trump administration's efforts. The mayor of Denver recently pledged to block federal immigration efforts and Homan responded saying, "I'm willing to put him in jail."

"Local and state officials on the frontlines of the Harris-Biden border invasion have been suffering for four years and are eager for President Trump to return to the Oval Office," said Karoline Leavitt, Trump's incoming White House press secretary. "On day one, President Trump will marshal every lever of power to secure the border, protect their communities, and launch the largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrant criminals in history."