Comments made in Chicago from President-elect Donald Trump’s border czar have sparked concern and outrage among immigration attorneys and advocates. NBC Chicago’s Christian Farr reports.
Tom Homan, set to become President-elect Donald Trump’s "border czar," had a blunt message for Illinois leaders opposed to the administration’s plans for massive deportation efforts.
Homan, speaking at a conference in Phoenix over the weekend, promised that Trump and immigration enforcement agencies will hit the ground running when the new administration begins, and that leaders like Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson will either have to cooperate or face consequences.
“The mayor of Chicago, not a real bright guy, says Tom Homan isn’t welcome in Chicago. Well guess where Tom Homan’s going to be day one? Chicago, Illinois. You don’t want me to be there? Come get me,” he said.
Homan described the act of deporting undocumented immigrants as the “number one responsibility” of those concerned about safety, and promised that so-called “Sanctuary City” laws wouldn’t deter the administration.
“Put up all the roadblocks you want, because we’ll knock them down,” he said.
Homan has made multiple comments about specifically targeting Chicago and other areas where law enforcement are prohibited from partnering with ICE and other agencies on immigration enforcement actions. Pritzker has previously said he would meet with Homan, and promised to cooperate to remove violent criminals from communities.
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“Violent criminals who are undocumented and convicted of violent crime should be deported,” he said.
Where Pritzker continued to draw the line was on sweeping efforts to deport undocumented immigrants, pushing back against the Trump administration’s idea to use National Guard units from other states to assist in those actions.
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“I do not believe that we should be pitting one state's National Guard against another state,” he said. “I think that's un-American.”
Under Chicago’s Sanctuary City policy, authorities are not permitted to ask individuals about their immigration status or to disclose the information to authorities. City services also cannot be denied to individuals based on immigration status.
Chicago police are also not permitted to work with ICE to deport undocumented individuals under the policy.
Pritzker has signed a series of bills aiming to achieve similar goals, including the Keep Illinois Families Together Act, which prevents police departments from entering into agreements with ICE to carry out deportation operations. He also signed bills to prevent state agencies from entering into contracts to build or operate private detention centers for immigration enforcement actions, among other legislation.
While the Biden administration has focused its deportation efforts on those deemed public safety threats, the Trump administration would likely pursue deportation actions against any undocumented individual in the U.S., with Homan previously saying that "no one would be off the table" in connection with those efforts.
According to the BBC, immigration authorities deported more than 271,000 individuals in the last fiscal year, the largest number of deportations in the last decade. Officials with the Department of Homeland Security estimate there are approximately 11 million undocumented individuals in the country, but that nearly 80% of those individuals have been in the country for more than a decade, according to data analysis cited by the BBC.
