Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Thomas Homan stirred the pot Tuesday when he’s asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to look into pressing charges against sanctuary cities and the politicians who support them.
“For these sanctuary cities that knowingly shield and harbor an illegal alien in their jail and don’t allow us access, that is, in my opinion a violation of 8 USC 1324, that’s the alien smuggling statute,” Homan said on Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto.
Homan particularly singled out California’s Gov. Jerry Brown, who signed “sanctuary state” legislation in October that would limit the ability of federal law enforcement to catch illegal aliens detained by local law enforcement.
“You’ve got a state of California that wants to put politics above public safety,” Homan said. “What they’ve done is forced my officers to arrest dangerous criminals on their turf—in their homes and their places of business—rather than arresting them in the safety and security of a county jail.”
Reactions to Homan’s comments were swift.
Cecillia Wang, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said Homan’s comments were “outrageous.”
“Tom Homan is threatening to prosecute state and local government officials for carrying out lawful sanctuary policies,” she said in a statement issued by the ACLU. “Multiple courts have ruled that the Constitution or federal law prohibits the Trump administration’s efforts to intimidate states and localities into participating in draconian immigration enforcement tactics.”
The Dallas Morning News reported that Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings called the threat “hogwash,” and Austin Mayor Steve Adler said he would “oppose anti-immigrant policies, regardless of the personal consequences.”
Homan, who was tapped by President Trump to be permanent ICE director, has consistently promoted a strict policy of illegal alien enforcement and long lamented sanctuary policies that prevent law enforcement from doing its job.
“There is not another law enforcement agency in this country where people ask them not to enforce the laws,” Homan said in October when discussing the Trump administration’s “Immigration Principles and Policies” report at Washington’s Heritage Foundation.
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But Homan insisted that ICE is by no means going away.
“California better hold on tight; they’re about to see a lot more special agents, a lot more deportation officers in the state of California,” he said. “If the politicians in California don’t want to protect their communities, then ICE will.”
He said he has example after example of illegal aliens committing serious and violent crimes after being released into the public.
“The state of California better hang on tight because the smuggling organizations are using the sanctuary cities law, the sanctuary state law, as a selling ploy,” he added. “So California just bit off a lot more than they can chew.”