Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., warned that congressional Republicans must expedite funding for President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan to continue his mass deportation plan, or else they could “own another attack on this country.”
Graham made appearances on NBC and CNN Sunday shows advocating for two separate bills – a $100 billion border package, and a second $200 billion bill centered on “national security.”
As deliberations in both chambers continue, Graham cautioned Republicans against taking too long to reach a consensus. He said Homan needs immediate funding to further execute his mass deportation strategy, including to increase the number of detention beds from 41,000 to approximately 150,000, to hire more Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, finish the border wall and secure new technology.
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Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, speaks during a confirmation hearing for Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) nominee, on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“This whole debate in the Republican Party, do you need one bill or two right now? Right now, Tom Homan needs more money to hire ICE agents. He needs more money to finish the wall to increase bed space,” Graham told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “He doesn’t have the tools necessary to carry out this plan that President Trump gave him until Congress appropriates more money.”
Graham argued that the tax debate could wait until the end of the year, but Congress cannot delay funding for the border given the national security implications.
“So to my Republican colleagues, we’ve hit a wall here. We’re not building a wall. We’ve hit a wall,” Graham told CNN. “We need to appropriate money to Tom Homan so he can do what President Trump promised. And if we delay that – the taxes expire in December, we got plenty of time to deal with that – I worry that we’re going to own another attack on our country. I worry that we’re delaying this plan that President Trump ran on if the Congress doesn’t give his administration, Tom Homan, the money to do the plan that he promised, that President Trump promised. We need to come together quickly on this, in my view.”
Tom Homan speaks during the third day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 17, 2024. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
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“We need more money for Tom Homan. I’m for deporting illegal immigrants here who are criminals. Most people are. The public’s with him. But if you don’t get new money into the system, Tom Homan can’t do his job,” Graham added. “We need more bed space. We need to finish the wall. But I think the signature issue for Donald Trump was to get a handle on illegal immigration, and he’s off to a good start. We just need to help him in Congress.”
In an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Graham doubted that Homan was interested in deporting close to the approximately 11 million people in the U.S. illegally. As host Kristen Welker noted Trump has signaled potentially being interested in cutting a deal related to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for people who were brought into the United States illegally as minors, Graham said the Trump administration’s focus with deportations appeared to remain on criminal illegal immigrants. He cited how there are about 1.4 million illegal immigrants “who’ve had their case fully adjudicated, and they’re still here,” and there are “about 680,000 convicted of serious crimes.”
Graham said Homan needs more congressional funding to hire ICE agents. (Getty Images)
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“Here’s the question for the Republican Party. We talk about doing this, but we don’t have the resources. We haven’t given the Trump team the resources. Tom Homan, the border czar, said yesterday, ‘without money from Congress, I can’t do this’,” Graham said, adding: “Give Tom the tools he needs to execute a mass deportation strategy to deal with a mass illegal immigration problem created by Biden,” Graham told NBC. “Without new money, he cannot do this.”
