EXCLUSIVE — President Donald Trump‘s border czar, Tom Homan, embraced the legal challenges to Trump’s executive order rescinding birthright citizenship after a decision by an appeals court increased the likelihood of a Supreme Court showdown.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Homan reiterated his opinion that birthright citizenship is “the driver of illegal immigration.”
“I hope it’s settled by the courts because it’s been a question that hasn’t been answered in decades,” Homan said Thursday outside the White House‘s West Wing. “I don’t believe the Constitution is clear … so I’m glad the courts are considering it. It’s long overdue.”
On the first day of his second administration, Trump signed an executive order repealing birthright citizenship, or the legal right to citizenship for a person born in the United States, regardless of their parents, under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
Trump’s order says the 14th Amendment has “never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born” in the U.S.
Nevertheless, a panel of federal appellate judges, one of whom was appointed by Trump, rejected the administration’s emergency request to enforce his birthright citizenship executive order on Wednesday, contending the Justice Department had not demonstrated a “strong showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits of this appeal.”
“Deciding important substantive issues on one week’s notice turns our usual decision-making process on its head,” Judge Danielle Forrest, the Trump appointee, wrote. “We should not undertake this task unless the circumstances dictate that we must. They do not here.”
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will now hear arguments regarding the order in June after the San Francisco-based appeals court became the first to hear challenges to it at the appellate level.
Homan is working with mayors and governors such as New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) to counter illegal immigration, even in so-called sanctuary cities and states such as New York.
Weeks after Abbott offered Trump two state military bases, one in Eagle Pass and another in Del Rio, and 4,000 jail cells to house military and law enforcement personnel or illegal immigrants, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announced Wednesday that more of his state’s agencies had signed agreements to take part in federal immigration enforcement efforts. Those agencies include the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida State Guard following a similar agreement last week with the Florida Highway Patrol.
“Haven’t seen it all yet, but what I’ve seen so far I support,” Homan said.
Homan’s comments coincide with an announcement by Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday that the Trump administration will end the deportation protections and work permits provided to 521,000 Haitians living in the country under the temporary protected status, or TPS, program in August. The program pertaining to those Haitian foreign nationals was poised to expire next February.
The Department of Homeland Security earlier announced it was terminating TPS extensions for 600,000 Venezuelans before their April expiration date.
Like his birthright citizenship executive order, Trump’s previous attempts to end other TPS programs encountered challenges in court.
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Earlier Thursday, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller denied the Trump administration was disappointed with its progress so far concerning immigration.
“America is safe, sovereign, proud, and free,” he told reporters during Thursday’s press briefing. “We are a nation that everyone in the world understands, all across this land, you do not come here illegally, you will not get in, you will go to jail, you will go home. You will not succeed.”
