Border Czar Tom Homan Puts Sanctuary Cities Like Nashville on Notice
"We’re going to flood the zone with agents, multi-agency FBI, DEA, ICE, U.S. Marshals..."
This article originally appeared on the Daily Caller News Foundation and was republished with permission.
Guest post by Hailey Gomez
Border czar Tom Homan pushed back on Nashville’s mayor Tuesday on “The Ingraham Angle,” saying that federal agencies will flood “the zone” due to his attempt to get involved in the federal government’s deportation of illegal migrants.
The House Homeland and Judiciary committees opened an investigation Monday into Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell after he allegedly aided and abetted illegal immigrants, obstructing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. Fox host Laura Ingraham told Homan to expect “caterwauling from the open borders crowd.”
Homan responded.
“Remember, just a couple weeks ago, AOC went on social media saying if we put a finger on any of her coworkers or congress people that were at our Newark facility, there’d be consequences. Well, guess what? We did it. I’m waiting on the consequences. But you know, the mayor is no different,” Homan said. “Look, I’ve said from day one, you cannot cooperate with ICE if that’s what you want to do, but you can’t get in our way, and you can’t impede our efforts. Or you cross that line, we will seek prosecution.”
“As far as the belonging fund that he’s supporting, I have my own belonging fund,” Homan added. “We can give housing, food and free medical care in ICE detention. That’s exactly what we’re going to do in Nashville. We’re going to flood the zone with agents, multi-agency FBI, DEA, ICE, U.S. Marshals, and we’re going to flood the zone. If he wants to push back and support sanctuary cities, that means we flood the zone. We’ll flood the zone in the neighborhood to find the bad guy. We’ll flood the zone at work sites to find the bad guy. But we’re going to do it, and he’s not going to stop us.”
The investigation into O’Connell comes after the Nashville mayor issued an executive order requiring city employees and first responders to report all communication with immigration authorities directly to his office.
WATCH:
During a press conference announcing the open investigation, Republican Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles said that the committee will formally request all documents and communications related to O’Connell’s executive order, internal discussions concerning ICE actions and all correspondence involving Metro employees and affiliated NGOs regarding the arrest of illegal migrants.
Ingraham asked Homan if he believes the investigation against the Nashville mayor could “rise” to the “level of charging him with obstruction” of ICE officials.
“We’ll see. I know Homeland Oversight is opening up a congressional investigation. I cannot confirm or deny if ICE is investigating him, but we’ll see where it plays out. It isn’t just what he says, it’s what he does. So I plan on going to Nashville in the near future,” Homan said. “I said that from day one that we’re going to hit every sanctuary city. Everybody that wants to push back against ICE, we’re going to pay a lot of attention to them. Because why? It’s not a threat.”
“He ought to be thanking ICE for arresting the criminal aliens they arrested. They arrested, as you said earlier, a sex offender, several people that are convicted of violent crimes, gang members, and illegal aliens that were deported many times before, which means now they’re a felon. We made his street safer. A thank you would be nice, not attacking the men and women of ICE,” Homan added.
Since entering his position, Homan has received pushback from Democrats and sanctuary cities over his efforts to carry out the Trump administration’s agenda of mass deportation.
In May, federal prosecutors charged Democrat New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver with assaulting law enforcement officers after she, two other Democrat representatives and a Democrat mayor were involved in an incident outside an ICE detention facility.
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