'Border Czar' Pitches 'Fresh Idea' of Tip Line for Reporting Undocumented Immigrants, But ICE Has Had One for 20 Years

Tom Homan, President-elect Donald Trump's incoming "border czar," has proposed the creation of a hotline for Americans to report undocumented immigrants suspected of committing crimes. According to Homan, the hotline would allow citizens to aid in addressing issues like child trafficking and forced labor.

"I want a place where American citizens can call and report," Homan told NBC News. "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."

However, as USA Today recalled in a sprawling piece that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has maintained a similar hotline for over 20 years, fielding around 15,000 calls monthly on a variety of issues, including immigration violations, human trafficking, and other crimes.

"It already exists," immigration policy analyst at the Cato Institute, Alex Nowrasteh, told USA Today. "I don't know what Homan was talking about in terms of having a fresh, new idea."

Nowrasteh added that the existing ICE hotline has shown poor results so far:

"It probably wastes the time of a handful of employees at ICE to have to wade through these 15,000 calls a month and to take them and to write them down. Perhaps it leads to a few tips. But I have never heard of anything publicly that has come up related to a big operation started by a tip on the ICE hot hotline. Doesn't mean it didn't happen, but I've never heard of it."

"By promoting a 'new' line, the upcoming administration is furthering the notion that government has not been dealing with issues that are important to Americans and that Trump will be the first president to 'deal' with deportable noncitizens with criminal histories," explained owner and attorney at Cambridge Immigration Law Ellen B. Sullivan to The Latin Times. "This is false; the immigration court docket has hundreds of thousands of cases, most of which at this point deal with noncitizens with criminal issues."

Immigration rights advocates contend that the initiative risks turning citizens against one another and emboldening prejudice and some feel that such measures could push undocumented communities further into the shadows and lead to vigilante-style enforcement.

"This proposal can have devastating and unintended consequences for innocent aliens in our nation," said immigration attorney Naresh Gehi to The Latin Times adding that:

"The likelihood of false complaints will increase enormously. Aliens who are victims of crimes committed by Americans will be scared to come forward and will not cooperate or report matters to the police or ICE. Unscrupulous employers and contractors who strain relationships with aliens will file false reports by making anonymous calls for personal gain. The rule of law will be impacted in our nation and due process rights equality before the law and equal protection of the laws will fail to exist"

Critics also connect Homan's proposal to broader strategies touted by Republicans that call on citizens to participate in enforcement of controversial policies. Observers, such as MSNBC's Ja'han Jones, liken the hotline concept to other conservative measures, such as "bounty laws" for reporting abortion or restrictions on transgender rights, which have been criticized as encouraging surveillance and overreach.