White House border czar Tom Homan erupted at critics of President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda Friday, recalling horrific scenes from his decades in border enforcement — including migrants he said were “baked to death” in a tractor-trailer — as he argued that secure borders save lives.
Homan used the graphic stories during remarks at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., to push back on critics who have accused the Trump administration of being inhumane, arguing instead that tougher border enforcement saves lives by deterring migrants from making dangerous journeys controlled by cartels.
“I want to talk about why I’m pissed off this morning,” Homan told the crowd, arguing that media coverage has falsely portrayed Trump’s immigration policies as cruel or inhumane.
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“There’s nothing further from the truth,” Homan said. Rather, the border czar said critics have it backward, arguing that lax border enforcement creates the conditions for migrants to be exploited, assaulted or killed by smugglers and cartels. “What President Trump is doing is saving lives,” Homan told the crowd.
He then described one of the most graphic scenes he said he witnessed during his career in border enforcement.
“I’ve stood in the back of a tractor-trailer with 19 dead people at my feet,” Homan told the crowd at the Washington Hilton Friday morning, adding that the victims included a young boy and that they were found in their underwear while trying to escape extreme heat in the back of the truck.
“They all baked to death,” Homan said. “I got to that crime scene. They’re all in underwear, trying to get some relief from the 170 degree heat in the back of a steel truck with no air. Think of the way these people died.”
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Homan also said he has spoken with young girls who were raped by cartel members while making the journey to the U.S. border.
“I’ve gotten on my knees to talk to little girls as young as 9 that were raped multiple times by members of a cartel,” Homan said.
“That’s what happens when you have an unsecured border,” he added. “Well, guess what? There’s no little 9-year-old girl right now that everybody’s getting on their knees and talking to. President Trump has closed the border down.”
Homan repeatedly defended Trump personally and politically, saying the president has delivered the “most secure border in the history of this nation” and arguing that the administration’s immigration crackdown is aimed at preventing more deaths, trafficking and cartel exploitation.
“Secure borders save lives,” Homan said near the end of his remarks. “Secure borders protect our national security. No one’s done it better than President Trump. And we ain’t finished yet.”
The remarks came as the Trump administration continues to face criticism from Democrats and immigrant-rights advocates over its mass deportation push, expanded immigration enforcement and efforts to reverse Biden-era border policies. Homan, however, framed the crackdown as a moral necessity, saying the administration is making the country safer while reducing incentives for migrants to place themselves in the hands of criminal cartels.
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