Appearing Saturday on the Fox News Channel with host Neil Cavuto, former Acting Director of ICE Tom Homan said he has not accepted the White House’s offer to serve as “border czar,” despite President Donald Trump announcing the day prior that he had done so.
Former Acting ICE Director Tom Homan on reports that he's joining the White House pic.twitter.com/TXAWQmtSDt
— Neil Cavuto (@TeamCavuto) June 15, 2019
A transcript is as follows:
NEIL CAVUTO: We’re told you are the president’s choice to be his “border czar.” Is that true?
TOM HOMAN: I think yesterday’s announcement, the White House has made it clear it was kind of premature. Look, I’ve had discussions with the White House, they’ve approached me. I was first approached by Secretary Nielsen about this job and I declined it because I didn’t think the job was structured right. I didn’t think it had the proper authority. I think a “border czar” needs to be structured in a way they can coordinate activities from DHS, DOJ, DOD, HHS. They all have a piece of this border issue. I think any sort of “border czar” needs to be a person who coordinates an all-government response to the border. When I first had the discussions, that wasn’t the way it was set up. I certainly don’t want to come back and fail this president. I don’t think we should create another policy position as that’s not will have effectiveness on this border so as of right now, I am not accepting the job, but the discussions will continue.
CAVUTO: Have you talked to the president since this?
HOMAN: I won’t discuss my discussions with the president and ought to respect it. I have never discussed anything I’ve talked with the president about, nor would I. But, I can say I’ve talked to administration officials about what a “border czar” should look like, with my 34 years experience of what I’d think would be successful. I have not accepted any position at this time and I’ll just leave it at that.
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