Insisting a surge of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement will occur in Chicago and other sanctuary cities, U.S. Border Czar Tom Homan on Sunday warned anti-ICE activists “you’re going to jail” if they cross the line from peaceful protests and suggested instead they should rally against Congress.
President Donald Trump and Homan also sought to downplay controversy over Trump’s social media post on Saturday in which the president declared, “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.” The posting generated angst and accusations that the Republican president was declaring war on a major Democrat-led city.
Asked by a reporter at the White House on Sunday as he prepared to depart for the U.S. Open men’s singles tennis championship in New York if he was “ready to go to war with Chicago,” Trump responded by berating the reporter for dealing with “fake news” and called her “second rate.”
“We’re not going to war. We’re going to clean up our cities. We’re going to clean them up so they don’t kill five people every weekend. That’s not war. That’s common sense,” Trump said.
But Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth said it was “clear the president of the United States essentially just declared war on a major city in his own nation.”
“I take what the president of the United States says very seriously, because that is the respect you have to give the office,” said the Iraq War veteran. “And if that’s what he’s declaring, then let me make it clear, it would be an illegal order to declare war on a major city, any city, within the United States.”
The appearances on social media and on national television came as sweeping federal immigration enforcement actions that were threatened and predicted to start in Chicago and the suburbs over the weekend did not materialize by late afternoon Sunday.
Homan, appearing on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” program, said federal prosecutors across the country are ready to prosecute any acts taken against ICE officers under a “zero tolerance” policy backed by Trump.
“You throw a stone, you’re going to jail. You put hands on an ICE officer, you’re going to jail. You make a threat either online or in person, you’re going to jail,” Homan said, contending many protesters of immigration enforcement activities were “being paid” and that efforts were underway to find who was paying them.
“Look, here’s what people need to understand: ICE is enforcing the laws enacted by Congress. There are appropriated funding to enforce these laws. If you don’t like what ICE does, go protest Congress because we’re not making this stuff up,” Homan said.
“And what’s most insulting? You got members of Congress comparing ICE to Nazis and terrorists and racists. Well, if they’re racist for enforcing the law, what’s that make them? They wrote the law, so members of Congress, everyone that wants to attack us, you’re disgusting,” he said. “They’re members of Congress and they don’t like what ICE is doing, then do your job and legislate. Until then, President Trump and the men and women of ICE are going to continue to prioritize public safety threats and national security threats and make this country safer every day.”
Asked in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” if enforcement action should be expected in Chicago this week, Homan said, “Absolutely, you can expect action in most sanctuary cities across the country” as he criticized laws that prevent local law enforcement from participating in immigration enforcement, though it is a federal responsibility.
Asked by CNN host Jake Tapper if deployment of the National Guard in the city was part of this week’s actions, Homan said such a move “remains on the table” as a supporting “force multiplier.” When Tapper asked how many guard members could be deployed, Homan said it was “law enforcement sensitive information. I’m not going to tell you that.”
Homan acknowledged that more workplace immigration enforcement operations would take place, similar to one at a Georgia Hyundai electric battery plant on Thursday, where an ICE raid detained nearly 500 people, mainly South Korean nationals. South Korean officials have arranged for their departure from the U.S.
“We‘re going to do more worksite enforcement operations because number one, it‘s a crime to enter this country illegally. Number two, it‘s a crime to knowingly hire an illegal alien, and these companies that hire illegal aliens, they undercut the competition that’s paying U.S. citizen salaries.”
Homan also discounted Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker’s repeated complaints that the White House and federal authorities have not provided him with any information about their planned actions in order to coordinate it with local law enforcement, saying, “ICE agents have been flooding the zone in Chicago for a while now, so he’s aware of what’s going on.”
Like Trump, Homan sought to dismiss the president’s controversial social media posting of Saturday, a meme on the dark 1979 Vietnam War movie “Apocalypse Now” dubbed “Chipocalypse Now” that showed military helicopters flying over the city’s skyline and Trump pictured in a U.S. Army uniform as actor Robert Duvall.
“We’re going to war with the criminal cartels, criminal cartels. We’re going to war with illegal aliens — public safety threats that rape children, that raped citizens, that committed armed robberies, that distribute narcotics that kill Americans,” Homan said.
Duckworth, appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” recounted her attempt Friday with U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider of Highland Park to tour the offices that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has secured as the hub of ICE operations at Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago.
“No, you can’t,” Duckworth said the contingent was told. “They literally gave the people the day off, locked the doors and left.”
“This is not the action of someone that’s doing something legal or that they’re proud of,” she said.
Duckworth also said “it doesn’t escape me” that Trump renamed the Department of Defense to the Department of War and issued his war warning to Chicago after a meeting last week that was “humilitating” to Trump in which Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gathered in China without Trump.
“This is what Donald Trump does when something bad…happens to him in the news cycle, or when (the late sex-trafficker Jeffrey) Epstein victims come together and have a very emotional press conference, he changes the topic and distracts us by saying things like I’m going to send ICE to Chicago, I’m going to do this or do that,” she said. “The American people cannot be fooled.”