How Corporations Sought Connections to Border Czar Tom Homan — ProPublica

The primary time a Pennsylvania advisor named Charles Sowell linked with border czar Tom Homan was when Sowell reached out on LinkedIn in 2021, searching for recommendation about border contracting work. Homan had completed a stint as performing director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, capping a three-decade profession in federal authorities. He and Sowell constructed a rapport, based mostly partly on their shared criticisms of then-President Joe Biden’s border insurance policies.

By 2023, the lads had gone into enterprise collectively. Sowell was paying Homan as a advisor to his boutique agency, SE&M Options, which suggested firms — in some circumstances for a payment of $20,000 a month — searching for contracts from the companies the place Homan had as soon as labored. In 2024, Sowell turned chair of the board of Homan’s basis, Border911, which championed more durable border safety.

Throughout his 2024 presidential marketing campaign, Donald Trump made it clear that if he gained reelection he would appoint Homan to supervise the sweeping crackdown on unlawful immigration that he’d promised his supporters, which might possible contain billions of {dollars} in new contracts for personal firms. On the Republican Nationwide Conference speech by which Trump accepted his occasion’s nomination in July, he mentioned Homan would have a job in launching “the most important deportation operation within the historical past of our nation.”

“Put him in cost,” Trump mentioned, “and simply sit again and watch.”

After Trump gained and formally introduced Homan can be returning with him to the White Home, Sowell saved Homan on his payroll till the tip of the yr. As soon as named because the border czar, Homan mentioned he would recuse himself from contracting, saying he would don’t have any “involvement, dialogue, enter, or choice of any future authorities contracts.”

However a number of business executives who spoke with ProPublica mentioned at the very least half a dozen firms vying for a slice of the $45 billion Congress has allotted for immigration detention work had employed Sowell as a result of he had led them to imagine his connections to Homan would assist their possibilities of successful authorities work.

Homan’s enterprise relationships are underneath larger scrutiny after MSNBC reported an FBI sting that allegedly caught him on tape accepting $50,000 in money from undercover brokers posing as would-be authorities contractors earlier than he took the border czar submit.

His relationship with Sowell raises recent questions in regards to the integrity of the billion-dollar contracting course of for immigration enforcement, ethics specialists say.

Simply final month, Sowell and Homan’s senior adviser Mark Corridor visited considered one of Sowell’s purchasers searching for to money in on an unprecedented plan by the Trump administration to construct non permanent immigrant detention camps on navy bases, sources informed ProPublica. As just lately as February, Corridor too had been paid by Sowell’s agency, information present. On the identical time, the extent of Homan’s recusal has been referred to as into query: Information of inner conferences obtained by ProPublica confirmed that over the summer season Homan was in dialog with business executives in regards to the authorities’s contracting plans.

ProPublica gleaned extra particulars than beforehand reported by inspecting federal disclosure varieties, authorities paperwork and inner communications from corporations within the Homeland Safety business, and from interviews with Sowell and a number of other present and former authorities officers, in addition to executives at firms searching for contracts within the burgeoning detention sector. Most spoke on situation of anonymity due to their ongoing work within the sector.

Authorities officers in Homan’s place are required to keep away from any exercise that might influence their former enterprise associates for a yr after getting into authorities. Discussing immigration-related contracts with business gamers would signify a “clear-cut violation” of federal ethics rules, mentioned Don Fox, the previous common counsel for the Workplace of Authorities Ethics, an impartial company within the government department.

“You shouldn’t be in these briefings,” Fox mentioned. “You’re both recused or you aren’t.”

It’s widespread for firms trying to land federal contracts to rent consultants and search experience of former authorities staff. These relationships are topic to federal ethics guidelines designed to protect towards conflicts of curiosity. The White Home and DHS didn’t present requested copies of Homan’s formal recusal paperwork, which could define precisely what sorts of actions authorities legal professionals informed Homan must be off limits.

Homan and Corridor didn’t reply to requests for remark. In an interview, Sowell mentioned he and Homan now not have a monetary relationship. White Home spokesperson Abigail Jackson mentioned Homan has “no involvement within the precise awarding of a authorities contract.”

In his position as border czar, Homan “sometimes meets with quite a lot of individuals to find out about new developments and capabilities to serve the wants of the American individuals,” she mentioned.

Kathleen Clark, a regulation professor at Washington College in St. Louis and an professional in authorities ethics, mentioned, nonetheless, “It’s not nearly tainted awards. If the business believes the system is corrupt, then the general public is harmed. And the harm has already been achieved.”

Rising Wealth

Homan spent greater than 30 years in public service, ultimately rising to turn into a senior determine at ICE, a division of the Division of Homeland Safety, through the administration of President Barack Obama. He was performing ICE director throughout Trump’s first time period till he left authorities seven years in the past.

Whereas out of public workplace, Homan was extremely essential of Biden’s border insurance policies and fashioned the nonprofit Border911 to “educate Individuals on what it means to have a safe, well-managed border.”

Homan’s private-sector work earlier than he returned to authorities reworked his funds. In 2017, he declared property totaling a most of simply $250,000 on his ethics disclosures following a profession in federal service, a determine that excludes sure authorities retirement accounts.

By 2025, his web value had grown to between $3 million to $9 million, the disclosure paperwork present. (The varieties record property in ranges, and a portion of his web value might come from cash he had saved in authorities retirement accounts.)

In his years out of presidency, Homan turned a family identify in conservative circles as a frequent contributor on Fox Information. He began a consulting agency and was paid for public talking engagements across the nation, elevating alarms in regards to the document variety of border crossings through the Biden administration. The dire state of affairs on the border, he mentioned, might require the intervention of the U.S. navy and the hiring of personal firms to hold out a mass deportation marketing campaign. “We’re going to contract as a lot work out as we will, work that doesn’t require a badge and a gun,” Homan informed Fox Information in 2024.

After Trump made clear his intentions to faucet Homan as border czar, Sowell reached out to authorities contracting specialists, saying he was working with Homan’s Border911 Basis to assist streamline procurement for the incoming administration’s mass deportation coverage, mentioned two individuals who spoke with him.

Sowell, sources within the business mentioned, made it identified he was bringing collectively a bunch of firms that could possibly be in line for profitable contracts constructing detention camps for the Trump administration.

In an interview with ProPublica in June, Sowell mentioned when his purchasers needed to know DHS higher, he would herald Homan to get his perspective as a former senior ICE chief. Bloomberg just lately reported about elements of Homan’s enterprise dealings with Sowell.

Hints of Homan’s monetary relationship with Sowell may be present in Homan’s federally required monetary disclosure varieties, which include restricted data. The varieties report that Sowell’s agency paid Homan some sum of cash — greater than $5,000 — someday between 2023 and early 2025. They don’t say how a lot or precisely when he was paid, however Sowell informed ProPublica their monetary relationship ended final November or December.

Individually, Corridor disclosed he was paid $50,000 by Sowell for consulting in January and February earlier than he entered authorities in February. Corridor additionally was a part-time board member on the Border911 basis from April 2024 to February, in keeping with his LinkedIn web page.

Sowell made public his affinity for Homan at an business convention in April, the place many main gamers had been current: He spent $20,000 at a charity public sale to buy a commemorative quilt made out of Border Patrol agent vests. It was signed by Homan.

Sowell didn’t identify his purchasers, however ProPublica discovered a number of are firms that construct non permanent shelters, staffing companies that provide safety guards and medical firms that present well being care providers, although they didn’t have direct experience in immigration detention. Sowell mentioned he couldn’t touch upon his conversations with Homan since Homan went again into authorities. “I don’t have a variety of alternatives to speak with him anymore, whilst a good friend,” he mentioned.

“Tom is an exceptionally moral particular person,” Sowell mentioned within the June interview, including that his and Homan’s work steered away from any actual or perceived conflicts of curiosity. “I’m exceptionally pleased with this administration for not doing that kind of ‘it’s who you recognize’ versus ‘what you are able to do’ kind of contracting.”

Requested about extra particulars on this story earlier than publication, Sowell declined to remark.

Sowell seems to nonetheless keep in touch — at the very least to some extent — with the border czar’s workplace. Final month, he and Corridor flew to go to the Houston places of work of Industrial Tent Techniques, a family-owned firm that focuses on rapidly constructing non permanent constructions. ProPublica discovered that Industrial Tent Techniques is considered one of Sowell’s purchasers. Corridor was there that day to listen to the corporate’s leaders pitch their plan to make use of their tents and providers for immigration detention, even sampling a number of the tacos they had been hoping to serve detainees, in keeping with two sources with information of the assembly.

Industrial Tent Techniques didn’t reply to a request for remark.

The White Home mentioned Corridor has by no means been approved by Homan to signify him.

“It’s uncommon,” mentioned Gil Kerlikowske, a former commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Safety who served as drug czar for Obama, when requested in regards to the assembly. “As an adviser this is able to be completely inappropriate to satisfy with potential contractors.” Usually, he mentioned, a high decision-maker wouldn’t meet with a possible contractor, who would usually must undergo “quite a few hoops” to even request a gathering that might be denied.

One other one of many firms searching for experience from Sowell and Homan was USA Up Star, an Indiana-based firm that focuses on constructing non permanent services.

Homan and Sowell had been each on the payroll of USA Up Star earlier than Homan was named border czar, in keeping with a number of business sources with direct information of the connection and authorities paperwork.

Homan’s disclosures present solely that USA Up Star paid him as a advisor someday between 2023 and early 2025, however don’t element how a lot or when. Throughout this time, an image of Homan and the corporate’s proprietor and founder, Klay South, standing in entrance of a personal jet was posted on social media. South mentioned he had no remark.

Army Contracting

Sowell’s purchasers have been making an attempt to navigate a byzantine however extremely profitable contracting panorama, because the Trump administration has pledged to arrest 3,000 immigrants a day and is searching for to double the variety of detention beds.

Early this yr, the Trump administration drew up plans to construct a collection of large detention camps on navy bases to carry immigrants as a part of a deportation effort, the primary of which was deliberate for Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.

The administration got here up with a novel option to fund that camp, drawing on a contracting course of run by the U.S. navy often called the WEXMAC (which stands for Worldwide Expeditionary A number of Award Contract). Homan spoke to firms within the business about these plans.

Information obtained by ProPublica present a contracting officer on the Division of Protection, which the administration now calls the Division of Struggle, saying in a gathering that Homan had been speaking to firms in regards to the WEXMAC. “Border czar has been briefed by business,” the official knowledgeable his colleagues. ”Border czar is probably going to say one thing to SECDEF,” the official continued, referring to Secretary of Protection Peter Hegseth. Bloomberg additionally reported on the June assembly.

Inquiries into Homan’s earlier work within the personal sector and his enterprise relationships are prone to ramp up following the reviews of the $50,000 undercover sting. That federal investigation into Homan was launched after the topic of one other inquiry — not Sowell — claimed the border czar was soliciting funds in alternate for the promise of future contracts ought to Trump return to energy, an individual aware of the closed investigation mentioned.

“This matter originated underneath the earlier administration and was subjected to a full evaluation by FBI brokers and Justice Division prosecutors,” FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Legal professional Common Todd Blanche mentioned in a joint assertion. “They discovered no credible proof of any legal wrongdoing. The Division’s assets should stay centered on actual threats to the American individuals, not baseless investigations. In consequence, the investigation has been closed.”

The White Home press secretary denied that Homan obtained the cash, and Homan has mentioned he has achieved nothing unlawful. He has not been charged with any offense, and neither Corridor nor Sowell has been accused of wrongdoing.

Democratic lawmakers are searching for audio and video proof from the closed FBI case and have additionally raised questions on Homan’s monetary ties to The Geo Group, a personal jail agency he beforehand consulted for that has gained profitable contracts in latest months. The Geo Group didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Tens of billions of {dollars} of extra funding for immigration enforcement have but to be spent. The detention camp contract at Fort Bliss, which might ultimately maintain 5,000 individuals, was awarded to a consortium of corporations led by an organization on the navy contracting record for over $1 billion. It’s the first of a number of such services deliberate in coming years.

Quite a few Sowell’s purchasers — together with Industrial Tent Techniques and USA Up Star — had been among the many near 60 firms just lately added to the WEXMAC. That makes them eligible to bid on these future immigration detention camp contracts.