Incoming border czar Tom Homan told NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez in a one-on-one interview at the U.S. southern border that Donald Trump administration would shut down the Darien Gap, the dangerous Panamanian jungle hundreds of thousands of migrants cross each year.
“It needs to happen,” he said, “Shutting down the Darien Gap is going to protect our national security. It's going to save thousands of lives.”
Panama has faced pressure to crack down on migration in recent years, and the country’s immigration authorities said this month there had been a 42% drop in crossings last year through the 70-mile stretch of jungle.
Homan's comments come as the president-elect begins laying out an expansionist foreign policy. This week, Trump didn’t rule out using military force to retake the Panama Canal or acquire Greenland.
‘Collateral arrests’: Homan, who was the acting director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first administration, also acknowledged that Trump’s mass deportation plan would include “collateral arrests” – undocumented immigrants without criminal records who are discovered as ICE agents search for their targets.
He also warned that workplace roundups would ramp up again soon after Trump takes office.
“We're going to do it in a smart way,” Homan said. “We're still working on how exactly we want to roll this out, but [work site] operations have to come back again because it's the No. 1 place we find victims of forced labor being run by many cartels.”
The $86 billion question: A critical outstanding standing question is how the administration will pay for these ambitious plans. ICE already has a $230 million budget shortfall, and it’s unclear when and how Congress will agree on funding. Homan said $86 billion would be a “great start,” noting that it's less than what the United States has spent on military and other assistance to Ukraine after the Russian invasion.
“I’m saying, ‘We’re going to defend another nation’s borders?’ How about defending our borders, too? And so, give us the money to do this job," he said.
When pressed about how the Trump administration would pay for this deportation operation, Homan would not say whether officials would take money from the Defense Department to fund it.
“That decision is above me,” he responded. “DOD can certainly be a force multiplier.”
Read our full story from Gabe’s interview →
And watch “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT for more.
