President-elect Donald Trump's decision to implement his sweeping deportation plans could potentially allow him to operate with more power and fewer congressional oversight than a few of his own Cabinet members.
That's since the appointee, former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan, is not going to be directly tasked with running the Department of Homeland Security or anyone else Sub-agency tasked with resolving immigration issues.
Homan will as an alternative be the Trump administration's “border czar,” a title that would give him significant influence over immigration and border policy without the formal authority – and guardrails – that comes with being a Cabinet secretary.
Trump announced Homan's selection in a post Sunday evening truth social Platform that makes the immigration hardliner “responsible for our nation’s borders.”
Homan can even be “responsible for the entire deportation of illegal aliens back to their country of origin,” Trump said wrote within the post.
Unlike Cabinet nominees — or the roughly 1,200 other federal positions that require Senate confirmation — Homan doesn’t need congressional approval to serve under Trump. And he could also be insulated from other types of legislative control, experts told CNBC.
“White House appointees are subject to less oversight than Cabinet and sub-Cabinet officials,” said Katherine Hawkins, senior legal analyst for the Project on Government Oversight.
“It is much more difficult for Congress to enforce subpoenas against White House officials, and it is more likely that they will invoke executive privilege and refuse to testify and have that refusal upheld by the courts,” Hawkins said.
These staffers may lack formal congressional approval, but that doesn't necessarily mean they’re subordinate to their Senate-confirmed colleagues.
“Who is actually more powerful in practice depends on things like access to the president and the willingness of the Cabinet and other officials to reject demands from the White House,” Hawkins said.
A Trump transition spokesman declined CNBC's request for comment.
Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who helped challenge immigration policies through the Trump and Biden administrations, agreed.
Homan's lack of an agency position “will not diminish his influence and may make it more difficult to meaningfully scrutinize his actions,” he said.
Faisal Al-Juburi, chief foreign affairs officer for the immigration rights group RAICES, said czars could have major political implications “while at the same time impeding congressional oversight that is essential to ensuring accountability of those who act on behalf of the U.S. government.” is crucial.”
The contributions “create opaque circumstances that make it difficult, if not impossible, to determine who retains authority over policies that could have far-reaching impacts on the American people,” Al-Juburi said.
Lead the charge
Taken at face value, Trump's contribution gives Homan enormous power.
When the brand new administration takes power on January 20, 2025, Homan can be chargeable for implementing a key promise of Trump's presidential campaign: deporting thousands and thousands of illegal immigrants.
Homan's responsibilities include, but are “not limited to,” the southern border, the northern border, and all maritime and air security, Trump wrote.
Implementing a mass deportation plan would pose unprecedented logistical challenges and require complex, extensive collaboration between federal authorities, local law enforcement, receiving states, and other agencies. The means of locating, detaining, and deporting so many individuals, including mixed-status families and youngsters, can be burdensome and the prices can be astronomical. NBC News reported.
Homan, 62, has been one in all the policy's loudest supporters. He is a daily on Fox News and a speaker on the 2024 Republican National Convention allegedly promised earlier this 12 months to deploy “the largest deportation force this country has ever seen.”
Homan was named Father the Trump administration's highly controversial “zero tolerance” border policy, which led to the separation of 1000’s of immigrant families and was reversed by Trump in 2018.
When asked in a recent interview with CBS News' “60 Minutes” whether mass deportations could occur without family separation, Homan said, “Of course there is. Families can be deported together.”
Gelernt said that given Homan's behavior through the first Trump administration and his subsequent statements, he expects the appointment “will have widespread anti-asylum and anti-immigrant implications.”
How Homan can exercise his power is unclear. “It is extremely doubtful that anyone on the White House staff, the type of person sometimes referred to as a czar, could actually exercise legal authority,” said Professor John Harrison of the University of Virginia School of Law told Congress in 2009.
But “as a practical matter,” these staffers can still exert significant influence over policy decisions, Harrison said in an interview with CNBC on Monday.
Hawkins pointed to Trump's senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, saying he was “probably the most influential political voice on immigration and border issues” through the Republican's first term within the White House.
“DHS officials pushed back to some extent,” she said, “but Miller held out the longest and was closest to Trump and usually got his way.”
Miller is anticipated to be chosen as Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy. NBC reported Monday.
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