Border czar Tom Homan fires back at sanctuary city mayors over policy disagreements, vowing to continue targeting illegal immigrant criminals despite local opposition.
Quick Takes
- Tom Homan appeared on Fox News to counter arguments from sanctuary city mayors who testified before Congress.
- Boston Mayor Michelle Wu directly challenged Homan, telling him to testify under oath about his claims regarding city safety.
- Homan detailed how ICE operations have removed dangerous individuals from sanctuary cities, contradicting mayors’ assertions that such actions make cities less safe.
- The former ICE director addressed family separation issues and highlighted the problem of child trafficking that he claims sanctuary policies enable.
- Homan doubled down on his promise to “bring hell” to sanctuary cities through continued immigration enforcement.
Sanctuary City Showdown
A high-stakes confrontation is escalating between Tom Homan, the newly appointed border czar, and the mayors of several major sanctuary cities. The clash came to a head after mayors from Boston, Denver, New York City, and Chicago defended their sanctuary policies before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. These jurisdictions limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities and restrict local law enforcement from inquiring about immigration status, policies that Homan has consistently opposed throughout his career in immigration enforcement.
The tension reached new heights when Boston Mayor Michelle Wu directly criticized Homan during congressional testimony. Instead of backing down, Homan appeared on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News program to respond forcefully to the criticism. Wu’s comments appeared to galvanize rather than deter Homan, who expressed satisfaction at being singled out by the Boston mayor, viewing it as confirmation that his enforcement strategies were having an impact on sanctuary jurisdictions that he believes obstruct federal immigration law.
Public Safety at the Center of Debate
Central to this heated exchange is the fundamental disagreement over whether sanctuary policies enhance or undermine public safety. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson claimed during his testimony that deporting dangerous individuals makes cities more dangerous—a position Homan vehemently disputed. The border czar pointed to specific ICE operations that removed violent offenders from sanctuary cities, including gang members and individuals convicted of serious crimes who had been released by local authorities despite ICE detainer requests.
“As far as mayor of Chicago about we’re not making this community safer, I went up there and did a one day operation. We took seven TDA members off the street. We took two illegal aliens that were convicted of murder, that they released, took them off the street. We arrested six child predators, took them off the streets of Chicago. ICE is making every one of those cities safer because they’re releasing public safety threats back into the public. That on itself is just stupid policy and we’re going to keep going. Look, they can hate me all they want. We’re coming. I said I’m going to bring hell. I meant it. I’m going to stand by it. And I’m going to do it. We’re going to take child predators off the streets of these cities where they don’t want to do it.” – Tom Homan
Rep. James Comer, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, supported Homan’s position, emphasizing the risks posed to ICE officers when they must apprehend individuals in communities rather than in controlled detention settings. This safety concern for federal officers represents another dimension of the public safety debate that sanctuary city proponents rarely address in their policy justifications. The confrontation highlights the ongoing tension between federal immigration enforcement priorities and local governance autonomy.
Family Separation and Child Trafficking Concerns
Beyond the immediate public safety arguments, Homan addressed the emotional issue of family separation that has become central to immigration debates. He defended the policy by explaining the legal reality that when parents are prosecuted for immigration violations, their children cannot accompany them to jail—a situation he noted occurs with U.S. citizens daily throughout the criminal justice system. His explanation attempts to contextualize a policy that has drawn significant humanitarian criticism.
“Yes, we separated families because we prosecuted parents, and the children can’t go to jail with them. That happens to U.S. citizen parents hundreds of times across this country every day. But they don’t talk about the half a million children that were trafficked into this country. They can’t find 300,000 of them. They’re in sex trafficking and forced labor — not a word about that. The whole Democrat Party remains silent on that. Shame on them.” – Tom Homan
Homan pivoted to what he considers an overlooked crisis: the trafficking of hundreds of thousands of children across the border. He claimed that approximately 300,000 children remain unaccounted for and are likely victims of sex trafficking and forced labor. This assertion shifts the humanitarian focus from family separation to child exploitation, suggesting that sanctuary policies may inadvertently facilitate human trafficking by creating environments where immigration enforcement is limited and traffickers can operate with reduced fear of detection.
Sources:
- Border Czar Goes Ballistic on Clueless Sanctuary City Mayors
- Boston Mayor Michelle Wu accuses Border Czar Tom Homan of lying about her city: ‘Shame on him’
