(NewsNation) — Incoming Trump administration border czar Tom Homan tells NewsNation's Ali Bradley there is no “price tag” for the mass deportations planned by the incoming administration, citing “national security” concerns.
“What price do you put on national security? I don't think it has a price tag,” Homan said. “What price do you put on the thousands of American moms and dads who buried their children? You want to talk about family separation; they buried their children because their children were murdered by illegal aliens that weren't supposed to be here. I don't put a price on that. I don't put a price on national security. I don't put a price on American lives.”
Homan further defended the mass deportations’ $86 billion price tag, saying it would save American taxpayers money in the future.
“This operation would be expensive,” he acknowledged. “However, it’s going to save taxpayers a lot of money in the long run. Right now, we’re spending billions of dollars on free airline tickets, free hotel rooms, free medical care, free meals, the education system.”
Homan, however, said they will also need help from Congress.
"We need more resources; we need funding. We obviously need to buy more detention beds because everybody we arrest, we have to detain to work on those removal efforts and get travel documents, get flight arrangements. So we need more detention beds,” said Homan.
Homan said the Trump administration doesn’t plan on separating families but rather deporting them together. He said the administration is looking into using halfway houses to hold U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants.
“As far as U.S. children, that's going to be a difficult situation because we're not going to change your U.S. citizenship,” he said. “Which means they’re going to be put in a halfway house or they can stay at home and wait for the officers to get the travel arrangements and come back and get the family. You know the best thing to do for a family is to self-deport themselves.”
Homan also targeted birthright citizenship, saying having a child who is a U.S. citizen does not make undocumented immigrants “immune from our laws.”
“We can't send that message,” he said. “Because if we do, you're never going to solve the border crisis.”
