Tom Homan Discusses Border Policy on Face the Nation, March 29

Tom Homan arrived at Face the Nation on Sunday with a three-part argument: the border was more secure than at any point in American history, his agency was arresting record numbers of criminals, and his administration spoke with one voice. Weeks of public record had already begun eroding each claim.

The March 29 broadcast came as a partial DHS shutdown had stripped the Transportation Security Administration of more than 480 officers and pushed callout rates at some airports to between 40 and 50 percent. Homan's response was to deploy ICE agents to manage security lines, pledging to keep them there until "the airports feel like they are 100%." Four days earlier, TSA acting administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill had told the House Homeland Security Committee that the agency was nowhere near that number, describing officer losses as the worst since the shutdown began and calling on Congress to fund DHS to "ensure this never happens again."

The unity argument proved harder to sustain. In recent Face the Nation appearances, Homan has leaned on some version of the "one team, one fight" formulation while offering a pointed acknowledgment that he and Secretary Noem don't "agree on everything," framing those differences as disagreements resolved daily in multi-agency conference calls. CNN reported on March 24, however, that Homan "didn't have a relationship with Noem and barely spoke with her," and that the daily calls he now describes are with Noem's successor, newly installed DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. According to CNN, Homan preferred targeted enforcement while Noem's operation leaned toward the large-scale visible sweeps that triggered a political crisis in Minnesota. The difference was not worked out in meetings. It ended with a personnel change.

On criminal arrests, the numbers cut in two directions at once. Homan told viewers that "we got record numbers of criminal aliens arrested and deported in this country." ICE arrests did surge sharply after January 2025. But ICE's own data showed that by January 2026, only about 29 percent of those detained had criminal convictions, down from 64 percent during Biden's final full month in office. A Cato Institute analysis of ICE records found that among those who did have convictions, only around 8 percent involved violent or property offenses.

His broadest claim, "the most secure border in history in this nation," arrived with no metric attached. Border crossings dropped significantly in early 2025, and the administration has cited that trend consistently. But Homan offered no indicator, no timeframe, and no comparison baseline that would allow the historical claim to be independently checked.

The practical consequence of Sunday's broadcast will show up at airport security lines this week. ICE agents are now institutionally present at major terminals, with Homan's stated benchmark for withdrawal set at full airport satisfaction. Their agency mandate is, by statute, immigration enforcement. The TSA's own shortage data suggests the agency is struggling to manage even its original job.