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Trump administration “border czar” Tom Homan giving the keynote address at the Border Security Expo at the Phoenix convention center on April 8, 2025. (Photo: Jerod MacDonald-Evoy / Arizona Mirror)
The leader of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that his dream for the agency is squads of trucks rounding up immigrants for deportation the same way that Amazon trucks crisscross American cities delivering packages.
“We need to get better at treating this like a business,” Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said, explaining he wants to see a deportation process “like (Amazon) Prime, but with human beings.”
Lyons was one of a series of Trump administration speakers at the 2025 Border Security Expo at the Phoenix, Arizona Convention Center, including Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar”, and Kristi Noem, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Most extolled Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans, and Noem promised to expand its use to swiftly deport immigrants.
Several speakers, including Homan, told the military industrial complex representatives in the crowd that the Trump administration is depending on the private sector to implement its mass deportation agenda.
“We need to buy more beds, we need more airplane flights, and I know a lot of you are here for that reason,” Homan told the crowd in his keynote speech, which kicked off the expo.
“Let the badge and guns do the badge and gun stuff, everything else, let’s contract out,” he said.
Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first term and backed the controversial “zero tolerance” policy at the southern border, and has been connected to far-right extremist and conspiracy theorist groups.
He was one of two keynote speakers at the annual Border Security Expo, a trade show event that features hundreds of military and tech companies, many with controversial backgrounds, all aiming to secure federal contracts or expand existing ones. Organizers initially told the Arizona Mirror that media could not attend, but opened the doors to the press after the late announcement that Noem would be a second keynote speaker.
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The Trump administration has made border security a top priority, and the administration’s actions have faced scrutiny for their lack of due process and unprecedented efforts to keep mass deportation plans a secret, even from American courts.
The Mirror examined the list of companies in attendance and found that some of them have ties to Trump and his allies, such as Andruil Industries, which is tied to Trump ally Palantir, and whose director of defense technology was nominated by Trump to serve as the Army’s No. 2 official. Private prison company Geo Group, an ICE contractor who has seen its stock price skyrocket since Trump’s election, also was present at the event.
Many of the event’s sponsors also have ties to Trump, including one organization that is on the advisory board of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.
Homan defended the controversial use of the Alien Enemies Act, the 1798 law that was last used during World War II to intern Japanese Americans.
“That is a law enacted by Congress, and we are using that,” Homan said, adding that it “bothers him” when judges or politicians attempt to prevent him from using it. Shortly before Homan spoke, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration can use it for now.
He also said that family detention is still “on the table” as a policy, claiming that it is about ensuring that “families are families” and preventing human smuggling.
Homan wasn’t the only top immigration official to speak at the expo. Shortly after his keynote address, he joined a panel that included Lyons, Deputy Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection John Modlin and Deputy Chief for the U.S. Border Patrol David BeMiller and others for a “State of the Border” discussion.
Lyons said that he hopes that they can infuse artificial intelligence into the process to “free up bed space” and “fill up airplanes” taking immigrants back to their home countries at a faster rate.
Much like Homan, Lyons also shared that he supports the use of the Alien Enemies Act, calling it “amazing” to be able to speed up the process of deportations. He also said that he has been working with billionaire Elon Musk’s U.S. Department of Government Efficiency to get social security numbers to look for “voter fraud.”
There has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud connected to illegal immigration.
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Noem told the packed ballroom at the Phoenix Convention Center that they are “extremely close” to “operational control” of the border as migrant arrests at the border have reached the lowest numbers they’ve seen in decades.
Before appearing at the Border Security Expo, Noem participated in an ICE raid in Phoenix that included about 100 federal agents. Among the people embedded at the raid was anti-LGBTQ influencer Chaya Raichik.
Echoing Trump’s campaign rhetoric, Noem said there has been a “war and an invasion” at the southern border — longtime talking points for white supremacists — while saying that the administration plans to use “new technology,” including biometrics, not just along the border but in the “interior” of the United States.
Much like the officials that spoke before her, Noem praised the use of the Alien Enemies Act and said that she would be working to defend its use. And she pledged to put the current operation “on steroids” to speed up the deportation process.
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And Noem praised Musk and DOGE.
“I think the Department of Homeland Security has been their biggest partner,” Noem said of DOGE, claiming that the non-governmental agency has helped DHS find waste and abuse.
Noem also defended Trump’s use of tariffs to launch a global trade crisis and tank stock markets in the U.S. and around the globe.
“It will look like a roller coaster for a little while,” Noem said to an attendee who asked how the tariffs could impact DHS’s work. Noem added that she believes that the tariffs will help American families in the long run.
The event Tuesday was said by organizers to be the largest in its history, with the most attendees and vendors ever present. The expo floor was packed with members of both local and federal law enforcement. The Mirror observed members of the Apache Junction Police Department, Phoenix Police Department and U.S. Army, as well as border patrol agents.
This report was first published by the Arizona Mirror, which like NC Newsline, is part of the national States Newsroom network.