President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming border czar, career immigration enforcer Tom Homan, has made a bombshell promise in a massive blue city.
Earlier this month, Homan was on hand in Chicago, a city whose mayor has vowed to fight the Trump administration on its immigration plans, where he said deportation operations would begin on “day one.”
“All that starts January 21st, and we’re going to start right here in Chicago, Illinois. If your Chicago mayor doesn’t want to help, he can step aside. But if he impedes us — if he knowingly harbors or conceals an illegal alien — I will prosecute him,” Homan declared while sending a stern warning to Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson.
He also took a swipe at the state’s Democrat Gov. JB Pritzker in his speech.
“Chicago is in trouble because your mayor sucks and your governor sucks. January 21st, you’re going to look for a lot of ICE agents in your city, looking for criminals and gang members,” Homan said, indicating that the deportations would start the day after the inauguration of the president-elect.
During an interview with Fox News anchor Jesse Watters on Friday night, Homan further elaborated on the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement plans, declaring that ICE would “finally” be allowed to carry out its responsibilities by deporting millions of undocumented migrants.
Last week, a Wall Street Journal report indicated that roughly 200 officers are set to arrive in Chicago on Tuesday for a large-scale deportation operation just a day after the inauguration. However, he also said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would operate nationwide.
Watters asked Homan about reports claiming, “There’s going to be a big raid all across the country.”
Homan not only vowed deportations on day one but that ICE is being told to enforce immigration law “without apology.”
“ICE is finally going to go out and do their job,’ he said. “We’re going to take the handcuffs off ICE and let them go arrest criminal aliens.”
Watters asked, “Am I blowing your cover when I announce that there’s going to be a big raid in Chicago on Tuesday? Or do you want people to know maybe they can self-deport?”
“There’s going to be a big raid all across the country. Chicago is just one of many places. We got 24 field offices across the country. On Tuesday, you’re going expect ICE — ICE is finally going to go out and do their job. We’re going to take the handcuffs off ICE and let them go arrest criminal aliens. That’s what’s going to happen,” Homan pledged.
The Fox host then asked Homan what agents have mostly been doing over the past four years of the Biden-Harris regime.
“They haven’t been able to do much because Secretary Mayorkas had new ICE priorities. Get this. Now, the secretary of Homeland Security has told ICE you can’t arrest an illegal alien if he’s just here illegally,” Homan responded. “He’s got to be convicted of a serious crime or be a national security threat. He told immigration officers not to enforce immigration law.
“Well, we’re telling ICE you’re going to enforce immigration law without apology. You’re going to concentrate the worst for public safety threats first, but no one’s off the table. If they’re in the country illegally, they’ve got a problem,” he added.
During a previous phone interview with the Washington Examiner, Homan provided more insight into how the Trump administration will arrest, detain, and deport hundreds of thousands or even millions of illegal immigrants.
Homan said that immigrants whose only crime was coming into the country illegally should be sent back to their home country, even if they are just living with or related to someone who has an arrest warrant out for them.
“In sanctuary cities, expect a lot of collateral arrests. I mean, not priority criminal arrests. We can’t get the bad guy in jail. That means we have to go into the communities and find them, and there may be others. We expect a lot of collateral arrests,” Homan said.
