A Pennsylvania businessman who had Tom Homan on his payroll led corporations to imagine his connections to the long run border czar might assist advance their bids for presidency work, trade executives mentioned.
The primary time a Pennsylvania guide 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 appearing director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, capping a three-decade profession in federal authorities. He and Sowell constructed a rapport, primarily based 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 guide to his boutique agency, SE&M Options, which suggested corporations — in some instances for a payment of $20,000 a month — looking for contracts from the companies the place Homan had as soon as labored. In 2024, Sowell grew to become chair of the board of Homan’s basis, Border911, which championed harder border safety.
Throughout his 2024 presidential marketing campaign, Donald Trump made it clear that if he received 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 corporations. On the Republican Nationwide Conference speech by which Trump accepted his get together’s nomination in July, he mentioned Homan would have a job in launching “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.”
Donald Trump listens as Tom Homan speaks at an occasion on the White Home on June 26.
“Put him in charge,” Trump mentioned, “and just sit back and watch.”
After Trump received and formally introduced Homan can be returning with him to the White Home, Sowell saved Homan on his payroll till the top 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, discussion, input, or decision of any future government contracts.”
However a number of trade executives who spoke with ProPublica mentioned a minimum of half a dozen corporations 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 put up.
His relationship with Sowell raises contemporary questions in regards to the integrity of the billion-dollar contracting course of for immigration enforcement, ethics consultants say.
Simply final month, Sowell and Homan’s senior adviser Mark Corridor visited one in every of Sowell’s shoppers looking for to money in on an unprecedented plan by the Trump administration to construct non permanent immigrant detention camps on navy bases, sources advised ProPublica. As lately as February, Corridor too had been paid by Sowell’s agency, data present. On the identical time, the extent of Homan’s recusal has been referred to as into query: Information of inside conferences obtained by ProPublica confirmed that over the summer time Homan was in dialog with trade executives in regards to the authorities’s contracting plans.
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ProPublica gleaned extra particulars than beforehand reported by inspecting federal disclosure kinds, authorities paperwork and inside communications from corporations within the Homeland Safety trade, and from interviews with Sowell and several other present and former authorities officers, in addition to executives at corporations looking 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 avoid any exercise that would impression their former enterprise associates for a yr after coming into authorities. Discussing immigration-related contracts with trade gamers would characterize a “clear-cut violation” of federal ethics laws, mentioned Don Fox, the previous common counsel for the Workplace of Authorities Ethics, an impartial company within the govt department.
“You shouldn’t be in those briefings,” Fox mentioned. “You are either recused or you are not.”
It’s frequent for corporations seeking 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 in opposition to 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 advised Homan ought to 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 in the actual awarding of a government contract.”
In his function as border czar, Homan “occasionally meets with a variety of people to learn about new developments and capabilities to serve the needs of the American people,” she mentioned.
Kathleen Clark, a regulation professor at Washington College in St. Louis and an professional in authorities ethics, mentioned, nevertheless, “It’s not just about tainted awards. If the industry believes the system is corrupt, then the public is harmed. And the damage has already been done.”
Rising Wealth
Homan spent greater than 30 years in public service, finally rising to change into a senior determine at ICE, a division of the Division of Homeland Safety, through the administration of President Barack Obama. He was appearing 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 important of Biden’s border insurance policies and shaped the nonprofit Border911 to “educate Americans on what it means to have a secure, well-managed border.”
Homan’s private-sector work earlier than he returned to authorities remodeled his funds. In 2017, he declared belongings 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.
Tom Homan in 2018.
By 2025, his internet value had grown to between $3 million to $9 million, the disclosure paperwork present. (The kinds listing belongings in ranges, and a portion of his internet value could come from cash he had saved in authorities retirement accounts.)
After Trump made clear his intentions to faucet Homan as border czar, Sowell reached out to authorities contracting consultants, 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 trade mentioned, made it recognized he was bringing collectively a gaggle of corporations 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 shoppers needed to grasp DHS higher, he would usher in Homan to get his perspective as a former senior ICE chief. Bloomberg lately reported about facets of Homan’s enterprise dealings with Sowell.
Hints of Homan’s monetary relationship with Sowell could be present in Homan’s federally required monetary disclosure kinds, which include restricted data. The kinds 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 advised 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 accordance with his LinkedIn web page.
Sowell made public his affinity for Homan at an trade convention in April, the place many main gamers have been current: He spent $20,000 at a charity public sale to buy a commemorative quilt produced from Border Patrol agent vests. It was signed by Homan.
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Sowell didn’t title his shoppers, however ProPublica realized a number of are corporations that construct non permanent shelters, staffing companies that provide safety guards and medical corporations 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 lot of opportunities to chat with him anymore, even as a friend,” he mentioned.
“Tom is an exceptionally ethical 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 proud of this administration for not doing that type of ‘it’s who you know’ versus ‘what you can do’ type of contracting.”
Requested about extra particulars on this story earlier than publication, Sowell declined to remark.
Sowell seems to nonetheless keep up a correspondence — a minimum of 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 Methods, a family-owned firm that focuses on shortly constructing non permanent constructions. ProPublica realized that Industrial Tent Methods is one in every of Sowell’s shoppers. 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 have been hoping to serve detainees, in accordance with two sources with data of the assembly.
Industrial Tent Methods didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The White Home mentioned Corridor has by no means been approved by Homan to characterize him.
Tom Homan leaves after chatting with reporters exterior the White Home on Aug. 28.
“It is unusual,” 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 would be totally inappropriate to meet with potential contractors.” Usually, he mentioned, a prime decision-maker wouldn’t meet with a possible contractor, who would sometimes need to undergo “numerous hoops” to even request a gathering that might be denied.
One other one of many corporations looking for experience from Sowell and Homan was USA Up Star, an Indiana-based firm that focuses on constructing non permanent amenities.
Homan and Sowell have been each on the payroll of USA Up Star earlier than Homan was named border czar, in accordance with a number of trade sources with direct data of the connection and authorities paperwork.
Homan’s disclosures present solely that USA Up Star paid him as a guide 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 non-public jet was posted on social media. South mentioned he had no remark.
Army Contracting
Sowell’s shoppers have been attempting to navigate a byzantine however extremely profitable contracting panorama, because the Trump administration has pledged to arrest 3,000 immigrants a day and is looking 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 known as the WEXMAC (which stands for Worldwide Expeditionary A number of Award Contract). Homan spoke to corporations within the trade about these plans.
Information obtained by ProPublica present a contracting officer on the Division of Protection, which the administration now calls the Division of Warfare, saying in a gathering that Homan had been speaking to corporations in regards to the WEXMAC. “Border czar has been briefed by industry,” the official knowledgeable his colleagues. ”Border czar is more than likely going to say one thing to SECDEF,” the official continued, referring to Secretary of Protection Peter Hegseth. Bloomberg additionally reported on the June assembly.
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Inquiries into Homan’s earlier work within the personal sector and his enterprise relationships are prone to ramp up following the stories 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 accustomed to the closed investigation mentioned.
“This matter originated under the previous administration and was subjected to a full review by FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors,” FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Legal professional Basic Todd Blanche mentioned in a joint assertion. “They found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing. The Department’s resources must remain focused on real threats to the American people, not baseless investigations. As a result, the investigation has been closed.”
The White Home press secretary denied that Homan obtained the cash, and Homan has mentioned he has completed nothing unlawful. He has not been charged with any offense, and neither Corridor nor Sowell has been accused of wrongdoing.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Tom Homan converse with reporters on the White Home on April 28.
Democratic lawmakers are looking 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 non-public jail agency he beforehand consulted for that has received 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 finally maintain 5,000 individuals, was awarded to a consortium of corporations led by an organization on the navy contracting listing for over $1 billion. It’s the first of a number of such amenities deliberate in coming years.
Quite a lot of Sowell’s shoppers — together with Industrial Tent Methods and USA Up Star — have been among the many near 60 corporations lately added to the WEXMAC. That makes them eligible to bid on these future immigration detention camp contracts.
