On third-country deportations, Homan offered another plain answer: people in the country illegally can self-deport to their home nations rather than risk removal elsewhere.
Tom Homan just gave America a master class in how to handle a loaded media question: slow it down, expose the missing context and refuse to let a reporter’s premise do all the work.
During a wide-ranging interview with CBS News immigration correspondent Camilo Montoya-Galvez, President Trump’s border czar was confronted with a serious question about deaths in ICE custody. The reporter said 57 people had died in agency custody under the current administration and warned that 2026 could set a record.
Homan did not dodge the subject. He asked for the comparison that should have been sitting beside that number from the start.
“How many people died during the Biden administration?” Homan asked.
After the reporter answered only that it was “a significant number,” Homan pressed again. Montoya-Galvez finally acknowledged that he did not have the Biden-era data in front of him.
“Of course you don’t,” Homan fired back. “Again, it’s another loaded question against the Trump administration.”
The exchange appears in Montoya-Galvez’s full 35-minute interview with Homan:
Our full interview with Tom Homan.
GOP criticism of the Trump crackdown. A record ICE arrest surge. Renée Good. Accountability and body cams. Self-deportations for those in the U.S. illegally. 3rd country deportations. The prospect of immigration reform in the next Congress.…
— Camilo Montoya-Galvez (@camiloreports) October 5, 2026
Deaths in government custody deserve scrutiny, no matter which party controls the White House. Every case represents a human life, and every administration should be forced to explain the standards, medical care and circumstances involved.
But scrutiny cuts both ways. A raw total without the comparison years, the size of the detained population or the length and condition of detention can create a powerful impression while withholding the information needed to judge it.
The detailed account published by Fox News preserves the part of Homan’s answer that matters after the viral clash. Homan said ICE’s detained population has roughly doubled and recently stood near 74,000 people.
He argued that ICE operates under demanding detention standards, provides medical care to people who may arrive with previously undiagnosed conditions and should be compared with state prisons and federal penitentiaries using rates rather than politically convenient totals. Homan also called every death unfortunate and sad.
Congress, reporters and the public can test that defense against official death reports, detention levels, inspection records and medical-care standards. One isolated figure cannot deliver that complete verdict by itself.
That distinction is the heart of the exchange. Homan never claimed that a larger detained population makes a death acceptable.
He demanded a denominator and a historical baseline before accepting the reporter’s conclusion.
ICE’s own detention overview links the agency’s facility information, Health Service Corps, detention-management office, inspections, national standards and congressionally mandated death reports. Its official statistics page also cautions that detention data can fluctuate until the fiscal year is locked and that later reporting may contain corrections.
Those official records are where the argument should go next. The government must publish the facts, the press should compare like with like and officials must answer for failures when the evidence shows them.
What should not happen is exactly what Homan exposed: arriving with the accusation ready and the comparative data missing.
The rest of the interview also showed that Homan is willing to answer difficult policy questions directly. Asked about possible immigration legislation if Democrats retake control of Congress, he said he was “absolutely” willing to talk about making the system better while leaving any decision about legal status to President Trump.
On third-country deportations, Homan offered another plain answer: people in the country illegally can self-deport to their home nations rather than risk removal elsewhere.
Tom Homan, President Trump’s border czar, said people in the U.S. illegally can avoid being sent to “third countries” in Africa and other places around the world by self-deporting to their home countries.
“There’s your quick answer. If you self-deport … you're 100% likely to go… pic.twitter.com/iPT9hSc1w7
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 4, 2026
You can disagree with Homan’s answers and challenge his comparisons. You can demand the underlying records and ask whether every detention facility is living up to the standards he described.
But a serious interviewer should bring the same level of preparation he expects from the official across the table.
Homan recognized the trap in real time and turned it into the most revealing moment of the interview. The silence after his Biden-era question said more than a rehearsed answer ever could.
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