Scripps News spoke with border czar Tom Homan Tuesday about the Trump administration's efforts to continue deportations and secure the southern U.S. border.
The Supreme Court recently decided that the Trump administration can go ahead with deportations of Venezuelan refugees given temporary protected status. Does the Trump administration intend to start deporting Venezuelans and if so, how soon?
"Temporary protective status is supposed to be temporary. The sad thing is it's never temporary, right? It's given a temporary protective status because the conditions in the country are too dangerous for the alien to return that country. When that country's conditions improves, TPS goes away and they need to go home. That's the whole system, the way it's set up. So President Trump's following the law," Homan said.
"I think the courts made the right decision and we'll work quickly to deport as many as we can."
Does the administration pledge to abide by the Supreme Court's ruling that it cannot deport immigrants under the Alien Enemies Act as it has been doing, and do you anticipate other changes in tactics to be on the horizon?
"One thing we won't change, we can continue to arrest members of the TDA and MS-13 or designated terrorist groups. If we can't remove them via the Alien Enemies Act, we'll detain them," Homan said.
"And we either go to a Title 8 removal, which means they see an immigration judge and get ordered removed, or they go to expedited removal proceedings or voluntary return. So we're going to keep arresting them. We'll keep taking these dangerous people off the streets of our nation, and we'll detain them and find other methods to remove them."
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Do you still consider the situation at the border to be an emergency?
"It's an emergency as long as we have 'gotaways,'" Homan said, referring to people who enter the country illegally and aren't apprehended by law enforcement. "This is an emergency as long as fentanyl comes across that border. We made great progress, temporary progress. We're holding the line now. But we've got to get money from Congress to get the boots on the ground, the infrastructure, the tech equipment that goes in that border wall. We need to finish building that border wall."
"We need money to finish what we started. We're in a good place now, but we need more money to make this secure border permanent."
Watch the full interview with Homan in the video above.
