White House border czar Tom Homan virtually delivers the keynote address at the 44th Law Enforcement Appreciation Dinner and Children’s Charity Fundraiser on Nov. 29, 2025, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. (Photo by Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)
SIOUX FALLS — Being in the country without permission has to come with consequences, White House border czar Tom Homan said while delivering the keynote address by video Wednesday night at the 44th Law Enforcement Appreciation Dinner and Children’s Charity Fundraiser.
“The message we can’t send to the entire world is that, ‘Entering the country illegally, it’s a crime, but don’t worry about it,’” Homan told the audience of over a thousand at the Sioux Falls Convention Center.
Homan praised President Donald Trump’s immigration and border security policies. He said they have created “the most secure border in U.S. history.” He also criticized the Biden administration’s approach as relaxed enforcement that led to crime, trafficking and terrorism risks.
Homan was invited to headline the event in person, but the federal government shutdown upended his travel plans.
Event organizer and lawyer Scott Abdallah said this year’s event drew record interest.
“Given what has happened in the last year with border enforcement in our country, we thought local law enforcement would be very interested to hear directly from the border czar,” he told South Dakota Searchlight.
He said former South Dakota governor and current Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem did not help coordinate the event.
“They’re different offices, as I understand it. I think they’re all kind of part of the same umbrella, but I worked with somebody separate and apart from Governor Noem’s office, if you will,” he said.
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Homan formerly served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the previous Trump administration, from 2017 to 2018, and backed policies separating families at the southern border. Under that 2018 “zero tolerance” policy, at least 5,000 migrant families were separated. The Department of Homeland Security reunited about 74% of those families, according to a later report, but 998 children were not reunited.
MSNBC reported last month that Homan accepted a $50,000 cash payment from undercover FBI agents in a bribery sting before he began his current job with the Trump administration. Homan denies the allegations.
Homan is also controversial for his role in mass deportations and other stepped-up immigration enforcement actions of the current Trump administration.
A group of South Dakota organizations denounced Homan’s selection as speaker for the Sioux Falls event. They included South Dakota Voices for Peace, NAACP Sioux Falls, The Hub SD, Que Pasa Sioux Falls, Bienvenidos a Brookings, Leaders Engaged and Determined (LEAD), COUP Council, and All Souls Unitarian Church.
“The inhumane and degrading treatment of innocent people in the United States in broad daylight should be a red flag to all law enforcement and people of conscience that the values and laws that set the United States apart from other dictatorships across the world are eroding before our eyes,” said Taneeza Islam, CEO of South Dakota Voices for Peace.
The groups said in a statement they are “outraged” that the hosts would invite someone “who has clearly refuted the protections of due process and rights” found in the U.S. Constitution.
“To elevate Tom Homan at a community celebration dishonors the very ideals of protection and compassion that law enforcement should uphold,” said Nieema Thasing, president of NAACP Sioux Falls.
The groups called Homan one of the “key decision makers ripping children from the arms of their moms and dads, deporting U.S. citizen children, deploying federal agents to cities across the United States, arresting U.S. citizens by stopping cars in the middle of the road and dragging innocent people into the street, publicly humiliating and shaming them and throwing them in jail.”
Scott Abdallah said the groups are “entitled to their opinion.”
“I think the law enforcement officers in this room would likely disagree with them,” he said.
Abdallah said ICE is unfairly critiqued.
“Are people perfect? Is law enforcement perfect? No profession is perfect,” he said. “But I think the folks in this room are thankful that we have people out there that are willing to put their lives on the line to enforce the laws in the country.”
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