WASHINGTON—Border Czar Tom Homan is celebrating the passage of President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful” reconciliation bill, arguing in an interview with The Daily Wire that the bill is pivotal to protecting the southern border and empowering border authorities to do their jobs.

“We’ve made a lot of progress on the border, but we want to keep it permanent,” he told The Daily Wire outside the White House Wednesday, ahead of the bill’s passage. “We need the money, not just for the border, but interior enforcement operations. Money for the border is gonna help continue building the border wall. Every place the border barrier’s been built, illegal immigration went down, illegal drug flow went down, so we gotta put more border wall up.”

The Republican-led House passed the bill in a 215 to 214 vote early Thursday morning, a significant victory for the president after back-to-back, all-night sessions in the Rules Committee and on the House floor.

The Trump administration has emphasized the massive role that the bill would play in securing the border. As he spoke with The Daily Wire on Wednesday, Homan broke down the specifics of how the bill would assist in guarding the United States from illegal entries.

There’s also technology in the existing border wall that must be implemented, Homan argued. Particularly in areas where there is not a wall, or authorities are unable to build a wall, the border czar said it is important to have the technology to “let us know when someone’s crossing the border.”

“We need the technology added to the wall so border patrol agents can communicate to one another in dead areas. It’s gonna let us know when people approach the wall, climb over the wall, dig under the wall. We need that technology. So wall and technology plus technology where there’s not a wall, right?”

“Also, technology at the ports of entry,” he added. “So trade can continue at a fast pace, but we have best technology, find drugs and other contraband coming through the ports.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also needs money, Homan pointed out.

“ICE is in the hole right now,” he explained. “They’ve got about 50,000 people in beds. We’re funded for 34,000. ICE is already in the hole, so if we want to continue this massive deportation operation, we need more money.”

He also touted the Trump administration’s success on the border thus far.

“We’re doing great. Right now, the criminals arrested by ICE are about three times higher than Joe Biden under the same timeframe, but it should be 10 times higher because Joe Biden wasn’t doing anything. So we need more money to do more.”

“People are asking, they don’t think there’s enough deportations, not enough ICE arrests,” he continued. “I agree with ’em. I’m pushing for more arrests. We need money to do it. We need more money for boots on the ground. More money for detention beds. We should have at least a hundred thousand beds.”

“We need more for transportation contracts. We need more money for contractors to do jobs that don’t require a badge and gun. A badge and gun shouldn’t be doing administrative work. We need ’em on the street wrestling bad guys. So we need money for all those things.”

Homan repeatedly emphasized that securing the border should be a bipartisan issue, noting that “there are a handful of Democrats that believe in border security and national security.”

“But as a party, you’re never gonna get every vote from every Democrat,” he noted. “‘Cause I think a lot of ’em put politics over public safety plus politics over national security.”

“I think there’s a political firestorm right now,” he explained. “I don’t think Democrats are ever gonna agree. Our success shows their failure. Our success shows the lies of the last administration saying the border is secure, showing they’re vetting everybody, and all the lies they told we’re proving ’em wrong.”

“We’re proving ’em wrong by arresting people that they released, they said were vetted. We find out they have significant criminal histories. We’re arresting national security threats every week that they said didn’t exist, and we truly secured the border. So I think our success shows their failure and they don’t wanna show that,” Homan shared.

Homan pointed out to The Daily Wire that he’s been involved with border security since 1984.

“I’ve worked for six different presidents. I’ve seen hundreds of policies come and go. I know what works, what doesn’t. What we’re doing right now is working. It’s a game changer.”

“There’s people who don’t want [us] to succeed,” he emphasized. “There’s members of Congress truly that don’t want President Trump to succeed, and I find that shocking as an American, as a taxpayer, as someone who’s dedicated 40 years to doing this, it’s shocking that every member of Congress, regardless of political opinion, why would you not want the President of the United States to succeed in securing the border and removing public safety threats and national security threats from this country?”

“Give us some money to deal with it, prove that you’re really representing your constituents,” he concluded. “Prove that you actually care about the safety and security of this country. Love your community more than you hate President Trump.”

In a significant victory for President Donald Trump, the Republican-led House early Thursday morning passed what the president has championed as the “one big, beautiful bill,” with enough Republican holdouts coming around to support the comprehensive tax and budget package.

Trump met with House Republicans two days in a row as they hashed out last-minute changes to win over members from high-tax blue states who wanted a higher state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap and fiscal hawks who demanded more spending cuts. The final vote, a close 215-214, followed back-to-back all-night sessions in the Rules Committee and on the House floor.

“We planned and we worked and we locked arms together as a team. And we have delivered this against all odds,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said in the final moments. “The media has tried to divide us. They’ve written our eulogy about 10 times. And you know what? Sometimes it’s good to be underestimated, isn’t it? But we got this done.”

Johnson managed to beat his deadline to pass the legislation by Memorial Day. It now heads to the Republican-controlled Senate for consideration. The Trump administration has indicated that it wants Congress to be done with the bill by July 4.

The bill aims to provide funding and support for Trump’s priorities on border security, energy, and national defense. It also seeks to retain tax cuts from 2017 set to expire at the end of this year, raise the debt limit by trillions of dollars, implement “no tax on tips” and “no tax on overtime” policies, block federal dollars from funding transgender procedures, and more.

The House led the charge in devising the finer details of the bill after Congress approved a budget framework last month. The budget reconciliation process they are using will allow the Senate, with its narrow Republican majority, to bypass the three-fifths majority threshold for overcoming a filibuster. Still, doing so may not be so easy, as some Republican senators expressed reservations with the measure as it came together in the House.

Last-minute tweaks to the bill, meant to placate certain Republicans, include moving up Medicaid work requirements by two years to the end of 2026, and phasing out wind and solar energy tax credits after 2028. In addition, the SALT deduction cap was raised to $40,000, an increase from the $30,000 limit that had initially been placed into the bill. Lawmakers also settled on the name “Trump accounts” for a $1,000 savings proposal for newborns.

Democrats levied various complaints against the bill, including claims that it would result in people losing healthcare coverage and benefit the rich. They all voted against the bill, as did Republican Reps. Warren Davidson (OH) and Thomas Massie (KY), who raised concerns about spending and the estimated trillions of dollars the legislation is projected to add to the national debt.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, voted “present.”

Proponents focused on touting how the legislation would prevent a massive tax hike for working families and would kick illegal immigrants off Medicaid, among other things. Trump’s budget chief, Russell Vought, told Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro the legislation offers the “most historic level of mandatory savings that we’ve had, ever — $1.6 trillion” by reining in spending programs while fostering economic growth.