Who Is America’s Border Czar? Tom Homan Witnessed Pure Evil—and Chose to Fight It

He's been called “heartless” by critics. But they never saw what he saw inside that trailer in Texas.

There’s a reason Tom Homan is so relentless when it comes to securing America’s border.

He’s seen what happens when it isn’t.

Sitting down with Shawn Ryan, President Trump’s Border Czar opened up like never before—sharing the moments that shaped his life, from childhood to the devastating tragedies that still haunt him today.

He started at the beginning.

That was West Carthage, New York. A small town where patriotism was second nature.

“It was a very patriotic little town,” Homan said. “We’re only about six miles outside of Fort Drum.”

Back then, American flags weren’t controversial. They were expected. Kids were raised to respect the law, and the country they lived in.

“Well, I grew up in an era where police were highly respected, and, people loved their country,” he repeated.

“Literally, American flags everywhere.”

It’s the kind of upbringing Homan wishes he could pass down.

“It was a great, a great childhood,” he said.

“And it spooks me sometimes, actually—I had such a great childhood, I’m afraid that, I could not give my children the same childhood I had.”

Even as a kindergartener, Tom Homan knew exactly what he wanted to be.

“My dad, you know, ended as a judge, but he was a cop before then. My grandfather was a cop.”

He told Shawn Ryan it was never a question—he was going to be a cop. That was the dream from day one.

“I always knew I was going to be some sort of cop. That’s what I wanted forever. So I’ve lived my dream.”

Ryan asked him how early that calling kicked in.

“Kindergarten, first grade.”

For Homan, it wasn’t a phase. It was a purpose.

Surrounded by law enforcement, it was all he ever knew—and all he ever wanted.

“So, I knew I was going to be a police officer, and I did become a police officer straight out of college before I joined the Border Patrol.”

“But I knew, I had no doubt in my mind, there’s one thing I want to do and that’s be a law enforcement officer.”

When you ask Tom Homan what moments shaped him, he doesn’t hesitate.

“There’s a couple of things I’ve been involved in,” he told Shawn Ryan.

“Probably created the Tom Homan you see today.”

Ryan asked what operations stuck out most.

Homan’s answer wasn’t just about the events—it was about what they turned him into.

He said people often ask him why he seems so angry.

“Why are you always mad? Not so much now, but the last four years, right?”

Homan’s answer is blunt.

“Because I wake up every day pissed off under the Biden administration.”

He said it’s not about politics—it’s about betrayal.

“Because we handed that administration the most secure border in my lifetime. I’ve been doing this since 1984. And they unsecured it on purpose.”

He’s seen too much to stay quiet, and it still hits him hard.

“I lose my temper at Fox News sometimes because of what I’ve seen through my career.”

Then came the moment that changed Tom Homan forever.

This part is gut-wrenching.

He told Shawn Ryan about a 2003 smuggling case in Victoria, Texas—one that still haunts him.

“So I remember walking up to the—there’s a tractor trailer, and it was 19 people, baked to death in the back of that tractor trailer.”

“They’re in a steel box, tractor trailer—no air, in the middle of summer.”

The driver had unhooked the trailer and disappeared. When the doors were finally opened, it was chaos.

“I walk up to this tractor trailer… I see several bodies on the ground because when those doors finally opened up, the people are such a rush to get air that they knock some dead bodies out of the truck.”

“Then I got to the back of a tractor trailer and—I just see dead people.”

But one image hit him harder than the rest.

“As soon as I looked, I keyed in on a little boy.”

“He was wearing the same color underwear that my little boy had. Same underwear. And I had a five-year-old son at the time.”

Homan couldn’t hold back.

“So, when we got to the child, I knelt down beside him. Put my hand on him. I said a prayer because I knew based on the years I’ve done alien smuggling investigations, what a horrible, horrible death this child went through.”

That’s the moment that hardened his resolve. That’s why he won’t back down.

The Victoria tragedy shook the nation—but it stayed with Homan in a far more personal way.

It began in Harlingen, Texas, where over 70 migrants were packed into a trailer, hoping to make it north. They never made it.

Nineteen died of heat, dehydration, and suffocation on a desolate stretch of highway.

Fourteen people were indicted, including truck driver Tyrone Williams, who initially received life in prison. That sentence was later reduced to just under 34 years.

But for Homan, it wasn’t about the sentencing—it was about the human cost.

He wasn’t just an agent on the case.

He was a father standing over the body of a little boy who didn’t have to die.

The images from that case never left him.

“I didn’t sleep for a week down there,” he said. “I’m a pretty tough guy but that—that affected me because I had a five-year-old son at the time.”

He kept asking himself why his child got to grow up safe—while that little boy didn’t.

“Why is my son lucky and that child wasn’t? Why is my son born in the greatest nation on earth? And this child wasn’t?”

He made sure every person responsible went to prison.

But justice didn’t bring peace.

“Just the image of this little boy, how he suffered... that affected me more than anything, because I realized that didn’t have to happen.”

And that’s the fire that drives him today.

“If we had a secure border, that little child wouldn’t have died.”

Homan said it’s why he wakes up every day furious—because he knows what happens when policy fails.

“More kids are going to die. More women and children will get sexually assaulted. More Americans are going to die from fentanyl and other drugs from across that border.”

Then he dropped final hammer on the failed president:

“Joe Biden is the first president in history of this nation who came in office and unsecured a border on purpose.”

“That wasn’t mismanagement, that wasn’t incompetence. He knew exactly what he was doing.”

Now the story of Tom Homan, America’s Border Czar, makes perfect sense to anyone who actually takes the time to listen.

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