Is Tom Homan Recruiting Proud Boys?
Border czar Tom Homan met with extremist-linked activist as Trump administration ramps up mass deportation agenda.
WASHINGTON — As the Trump administration accelerates plans for mass deportations across the United States, new reporting reveals that Tom Homan, the head of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy, held multiple meetings with a far-right activist linked to the Proud Boys, including one closed-door session in Chicago to coordinate on deportation efforts.
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According to Hatewatch, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Homan met with Terry Newsome—an extremist activist and podcast host with a documented history of racist posts and associations with the Proud Boys—on at least four occasions between June 2024 and January 2025. One of those meetings, on December 11, 2024, reportedly brought Homan together with local Chicago politicians to plan deportation operations in the city.
“During our meetings, Tom directed the politicians to follow up with me as his PoC [point of contact],” Newsome wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Homan, who now serves as Trump’s so-called “border czar,” has emerged as a central figure in implementing the administration’s immigration enforcement blueprint, which includes building new detention centers, deploying ICE raids at schools and churches, and using military bases to hold migrants. On X, Homan warned in November: “Mass deportation is coming.”
ICE Expansion Amid Oversight Elimination
The meetings between Homan and Newsome come as the Trump administration has moved to rapidly expand ICE operations while slashing internal oversight. In March, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem eliminated three key oversight bodies within the Department of Homeland Security—the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, and the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman—calling them “roadblocks” to enforcement.
As Slate reported, the recently enacted “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB) grants ICE nearly $30 billion for enforcement—tripling the agency’s previous budget—and funds the hiring of 10,000 new immigration enforcement officers, with the goal of reaching up to 1 million deportations annually.
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Scott Shuchart, a former ICE official under the Biden administration, told Slate he fears that the agency could be infiltrated by far-right extremists under this new hiring surge. “I’m very worried that they are going to be Proud Boys and other insurrectionists and hoodlums,” he said. “What self-respecting person who wants a meaningful career in law enforcement would go to work at the ERO [Enforcement and Removal Operations] right now?”
Shuchart said that ERO has long harbored a culture of grievance and self-pity, now supercharged by Trump’s return to power and the removal of accountability mechanisms. With ICE agents operating masked, conducting courthouse arrests, and detaining immigrants under vague authority, civil liberties advocates warn of growing authoritarian practices cloaked in law enforcement legitimacy.
From Extremist Podcasts to Immigration Policy
Newsome, who attended the January 6 Capitol insurrection and has posed for photographs with Proud Boys and other far-right figures, has used his podcast and social media to promote anti-immigrant rhetoric and coordinate directly with officials. In videos posted online, Newsome has referred to “Venezuelan gang member hunting trips” and harassed migrants outside shelters in Chicago, often using Google Translate to question them about their legal status.
In October 2024, Homan appeared on Newsome’s podcast, and in January, they were seen attending a black-tie event together alongside Trump allies, including former CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Newsome has also posted videos showing Homan touring O’Hare Airport and explaining how migrants arrive in the city.
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A former Santa-suit-clad protester at an LGBTQ+ church event, Newsome is now being treated by some within the administration as an informal advisor and conduit to local enforcement. “Ray [Lopez] is like the old-school Chicago Dems I grew up with,” Newsome posted, promoting an upcoming podcast episode with Alderman Raymond Lopez, a Democrat who has pushed to gut Chicago’s sanctuary ordinance.
ICE’s Largest-Ever Facility Opens to Protests
On July 1, President Trump toured “Alligator Alcatraz,” a new ICE detention facility opened at the Dade-Collier Training and Transitional Airport in Florida’s Everglades. The site can hold up to 5,000 undocumented immigrants and includes a functioning airstrip for expedited deportations. The opening was met with protests from the Miccosukee Tribe and local residents, who clashed with Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Trump supporters.
“This will continue to be a fascist black site for imprisoning our neighbors,” said Zach Cosner of Collier County, Fla., according to Gulf Coast News. Others welcomed the facility as necessary infrastructure.
With plans to open 18 more detention centers nationwide and a dramatic expansion of ICE’s workforce, civil rights groups are bracing for what they warn could be the most aggressive immigration crackdown in modern U.S. history.
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