Homan sees this issue with the proper amount of nuance, which is nearly none at all.
President-elect Donald Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, has issued a stark warning to sanctuary cities, stating their officials could face federal charges for obstructing immigration enforcement. The warning comes as Trump prepares to reinstate strict immigration policies and mass deportations.
Key Details:
Homan said federal law supersedes local sanctuary laws, and refusing to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could result in charges for obstruction and harboring illegal immigrants.
Homan plans to work with the next Attorney General, likely Pam Bondi, to determine if sanctuary city policies violate federal law.
Trump and Homan aim to prioritize deportations of individuals accused or convicted of crimes, with additional measures to cut federal funding for sanctuary jurisdictions.
Diving Deeper:
President-elect Donald Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, has signaled a hardline approach to sanctuary cities, warning local officials they could face prosecution for defying federal immigration laws. Speaking to Just the News, Homan emphasized that impeding federal enforcement or knowingly harboring illegal immigrants could result in criminal charges.
"Federal law trumps state and local law every time," Homan said, referring to sanctuary policies in cities like Los Angeles, which recently reaffirmed its status as a sanctuary city. He noted that refusing to transfer illegal immigrants in custody to ICE may constitute harboring, a violation of federal law.
Homan plans to seek an official opinion from the next Attorney General--Pam Bondi is currently the nominee--on whether such refusals warrant legal action. He is also advocating for broader measures, such as withholding federal funds from jurisdictions that adopt sanctuary policies.
"We've got to pull federal funding," Homan stated, arguing that sanctuary policies undermine public safety. He warned mayors and governors that failing to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement could jeopardize community safety and violate federal statutes.
Homan also addressed broader concerns, including the Biden administration's handling of unaccompanied minors and the loss of track of 30,000 migrant children. He pledged to prioritize efforts to locate these children, acknowledging the challenges but vowing to combat human trafficking and forced labor.
Looking ahead, Homan expressed hope that Mexico's government would cooperate in reinstating Trump's "Remain in Mexico" policy, which requires asylum seekers to await processing south of the U.S. border. However, he warned, "If [Mexico's president] doesn't, then you know President Trump's one bad-ass president."
This may be a bluff, a bit of saber-rattling.
We already know the public rejected the lawfare against Trump. Now, if Trump begins using legal process against #Resistance figures (who are legitimately breaking the law), we'll see if the public is against all use of prosecutorial power to settle political disputes, or only plainly rancid and corrupt uses of the power, as we saw in the five Trump prosecutions.
I think the public might just reject all attempts to prosecute political actors over political disputes, but we'll have to see.
There is little question, though, that these Sanctuary jurisdictions should have federal monies stripped from them, as Homan suggests. The federal government is paying blue cities a lot of money supposedly for "law enforcement;" if they won't enforce the law, that money should stop.
Obviously, the Biden tactic of using all federal funds (especially FEMA emergency funding) as a slush fund to send to blue cities to pay for illegals will end, immediately. If any of these Sanctuary zones want to continue giving illegals free health care and rent subsidies, they can steal that money from their own citizens/taxpayers for that purpose, and see if how their voters like it. It's always easier to tax someone far away to pay for something unpopular. Having to tax your own voters will be a heavier lift.
And, of course, if these cities and states declare themselves Sanctuary zones, then we all know where all the remaining illegals must be sent.
Meawhile, lefties and left-leaning corporate libertarians are warning Americans -- who have not seen much in wage gains for 40 years because of "outsourcing" most manufacturing to the third world while the US simultaneously imported a third-world workforce to do all the jobs in the US that couldn't be "outsourced" -- that the maids and gardeners they don't actually earn enough money to employ will now be more expensive.