(NewsNation) — President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming “border czar” told NewsNation the administration will aggressively enforce immigration laws in sanctuary cities and may seek prosecution of officials who “knowingly harbor” undocumented immigrants.
“Sanctuary jurisdictions aren’t going to stop what we’re going to do,” Tom Homan said in a NewsNation interview Thursday. “If they don’t want to protect their communities, then the Trump administration will.”
Homan said immigration officers would focus on “public safety threats” and emphasized that sanctuary jurisdictions could face legal consequences if they actively interfere with federal enforcement efforts.
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“They can stand by and watch us do it, but they cannot impede us,” Homan said. “They cannot knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal from ICE. Those are crimes.”
He warned that forcing immigration agents to make arrests in communities rather than jails would likely result in more “collateral arrests” of undocumented immigrants who are not primary targets.
Regarding sensitive locations such as churches and hospitals traditionally considered off-limits to immigration enforcement, Homan indicated the policy is under review. He said there are already exceptions for “significant public safety threats” or national security issues.
Homan dismissed sanctuary city officials’ claims that their policies help protect crime victims and witnesses, calling it “a stone cold lie.”
“The victims and witnesses of crime certainly don’t want the bad guy released back into their neighborhood,” he said.
Republican strategist Katie Frost said that given the crisis along the U.S. southern border, “all options need to be on the table” when it comes to enforcement.
“We have to do whatever is necessary to find people who broke our laws, came into this country illegally and have overstayed their visas, ” Frost told NewsNation.
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Frost pointed to the case of the woman who was set on fire on a New York City subway by a man that police said entered the U.S. illegally. She said that the question that has to be answered is, “When is enough enough?”
Frost said that one of the reasons Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in November was because Americans are sick of how the Biden administration has handled securring the southern border.
However, Democratic strategist David Carlucci, says that the details of how the incoming Trump administration handles mass deportations becomes a critical part of the issue.
Carlucci told NewsNation that based on what he has heard from Homan, the “border czar” does not have a concrete plan for carrying out mass deportations. Instead, Carlucci believes Homan just going to try to catch illegal immigrants.
He said Homan needs to specify how he plans to carry out zeroing in on convicted criminals who entered the country illlegally as he has proposed when he first announced mass deportations.
Homan told NewsNation, however, that if illegal immigrants who do not have criminal backgrounds with those who do, they run the risk of being arrested as well. Carlucci said that could have dangerous ramifications.
“Is this going to be some sort of government state where we’ll all be questioned and audited for harboring illegal immigrants?” Carlucci said. “At what ends do we go to? The incoming Trump administration should be working with local officials instead of trying to make some sort of scapegoat.”
