Border czar Tom Homan revealed that he is living apart from his wife due to death threats he has received in an interview with the New York Post’s Miranda Divine earlier this week on her “Pod Force One” podcast.
“I spent a lot of time with my boys growing up, but as I got more and more — climbed the ladder of what I’ve done with ICE director and now back — I don’t see my family very much,” Homan said.
“My wife’s living separately from me right now, mainly because I worked for many hours, but mostly because of the death threats against me,” the country’s top border enforcer added. “She’s someplace else. I see her as much as I can, but the death threats against me and my family are outrageous.”
Homan served as acting ICE director during the first Trump administration but chose to retire after his nomination for the permanent role stalled in the Senate amid concerns about his tenure at the agency.
Homan said that President Donald Trump tapped him for his position within days of his landslide victory over then-Vice President Kamala Harris. He described the watershed moment to Divine as an offer that he simply could not refuse.
“I was the first person he called, bringing back, which, again, was a proud moment, but I was actually out to dinner with my wife, and then my phone rang, and I looked down, and it says, ‘POTUS.’ And my wife says, ‘He’s asking him to come back, isn’t he?’ ” Homan said.
“So I walked outside, and the first thing he said to me was, ‘You’ve been bitching about it for four years. Well, come back and fix it.’ So how do you say no?” Homan added.
Meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained 11 Iranian nationals, one of whom was a sharpshooter in his country’s elite army unit, during raids this week following the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities.
The arrest of Ribvar Karimi, who served four years in the Iranian army before obtaining a visa to enter the United States, comes after Iran threatened “retaliation” for the attack.
Although Trump has declared a cease-fire between the two nations, US antiterrorism officials are on “high alert” for the prospect that an Iranian sleeper cell actor may perpetrate a domestic act of terrorism.
According to ICE agents, Karimi was apprehended while holding a card identifying him as a member of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army.
“Under Secretary Noem, DHS has been full throttle on identifying and arresting known or suspected terrorists and violent extremists that illegally entered this country, came in through Biden’s fraudulent parole programs or otherwise,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “We have been saying we are getting the worst of the worst out—and we are. We don’t wait until a military operation to execute; we proactively deliver on President Trump’s mandate to secure the homeland.”
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Karimi was detained in Locust, Alabama, while on a K-1 visa, which is issued to foreigners who want to marry a US citizen. It is unclear who his future spouse was supposed to be.
He came during the Biden administration and failed to alter his status, which was a legal requirement, breaking the conditions of his visa and making him eligible for deportation, according to DHS.