President-elect Donald Trump's incoming "border czar" is mulling over a "fresh idea" to help enforce the nation's immigration laws — creating a hotline that would allow Americans to report undocumented immigrants who they believe have committed crimes.
Tom Homan, acting director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, during Trump's first term, made the comments Thursday to NBC News.
"I want a place where American citizens can call and report," he said. "We need to take care of the American people. We need to make sure they have an outlet to help report child traffickers, forced labor traffickers. We want to give them an opportunity to be a part of the fix."
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During the same interview, Homan said Trump's mass deportation plan includes so-called "collateral arrests" — meaning undocumented immigrants who've committed no crimes could be arrested as immigration agents search for other targets. He confirmed workplace roundups are also on the table.
"We’re going to do it in a smart way," he said. “We’re still working on how exactly we want to roll this out, but [work site] operations have to come back again because it’s the No. 1 place we find victims of forced labor being run by many cartels," said Homan.
Experts have warned mass deportations could have a massive impact on the economy.
In 2022, undocumented immigrant households paid $46.8 billion in federal taxes and $29.3 billion in state and local taxes, according to an October report by the American Immigration Council. They also contributed $22.6 billion to Social Security and $5.7 billion to Medicare.
Additionally, undocumented immigrants make up about a quarter of U.S. farm workers, one-fifth of maintenance workers, and 17 percent of construction workers, according to Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.