As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to fulfill his pledge to carry out the mass illegal immigrant deportations he promised, all eyes are on the man tasked with implementing that mission: incoming "border czar" Thomas Homan, a more than 30-year law enforcement veteran who led Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the first Trump administration.
Standing in Homan's way are a handful of Democratic governors and mayors who have vowed to fight deportations of illegal immigrants in their jurisdictions.
The most notable case is Denver mayor Mike Johnston (D.), who said last week in an interview that he is willing to put police officers at the county line to repel ICE agents, comparing Trump’s immigration plans to the massacre at Tiananmen Square.
"More than us having DPD stationed at the county line to keep them out, you would have 50,000 Denverites there," Johnston told Denverite. "It's like the Tiananmen Square moment with the rose and the gun, right? You’d have every one of those Highland moms who came out for the migrants. And you do not want to mess with them."
While Johnston walked back those comments, he still said he's ready to go to jail for obstructing Trump's immigration actions he thinks are "wrong."
"Would I have taken it back if I could? Yes, I probably wouldn't have used that image," Johnston told 9News. "That's the image I hope we can avoid. What I was trying to say is this is an outcome I hope we can avoid in this country."
Johnston is one of many Democrats who have pledged to make it difficult for Trump and Homan to carry out mass deportations. Those close to Homan told the Washington Free Beacon that the Trump White House is prepared to use all tools at its disposal to force them to cooperate with—or at least not obstruct—its mass deportation agenda.
Those tools include prosecutions under at least two provisions in the federal code. Federal law prohibits an individual from knowingly harboring any illegal aliens from law enforcement.
It's also a felony to hinder any law enforcement investigation—a charge Homan is likely to call for should any local or state leader attempt to slow down deportations. Democrats, those close to Homan said, need to weigh whether any political stunts are worth the severe criminal penalties.
Homan, who did not respond to a request for comment, said as much on Monday. In an interview with Fox News, he said, "Me and the Denver mayor agree on one thing: He is willing to go to jail, and I am willing to put him there."
There is no doubt among those who worked with Homan that he intends to make good on his threat. One individual, who spoke anonymously but worked with Homan directly, said the next Trump administration is expected to work with the Justice Department and bring felony charges against those who actively block any ICE deportations.
"Homan talks about this almost every day," said one individual who spoke on the condition of anonymity but worked closely under Homan during the first administration. "He’s not kidding."
Blue states and cities, by law, do not have to cooperate with federal law enforcement. A local police department is not legally required to assist ICE or any other federal agency with deportations.
But state and local officials cannot, for example, order police officers to block an ICE official from entering a building, as Johnston suggested earlier this month. Nor can they give false information to a federal law enforcement official.
Denver’s mayor is not the only Democrat who has said he will fight Trump’s planned deportations. Six Democratic prosecutors spoke with Politico earlier this month and said they plan a rash of lawsuits.
That may make some deportations more difficult. Homan is more than happy to face that problem, though those close to him believe that some police departments located in so-called sanctuary cities, municipalities with policies that block local law enforcement from cooperating with federal deportation orders, will relent.
Trump’s attorney general nominee, Pam Bondi, is expected to work closely with Homan and others to force Democratic compliance. One factor that attracted Bondi to Trump, an individual familiar with the choice told the Free Beacon, was her hardline position against drug traffickers as Florida’s attorney general.
The incoming Trump administration is itching for a fight with Democrats on deportations, said one individual familiar with their thinking. Polls taken after Trump’s decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris show that a majority of voters support a mass deportation program.
"Sanctuary policies are wildly unpopular, even among blue state voters, and these governors and mayors are siding with lawbreaking foreigners who have overstayed visas, ignored court orders, and committed horrific crimes," said Jon Feere, who served as a senior adviser to the Department of Homeland Security during Trump’s first term.
There are an estimated 12 million illegal aliens living in the United States, according to the Center for Migration Studies of New York, although some believe that figure is much higher. Few immigration experts believe all of those individuals can be deported within four years, regardless of whether Trump mobilizes the military.
Homan has said that he plans to prioritize illegal aliens with criminal convictions or those who have already received a deportation order from an immigration court. Such a strategy could, one senior Republican adviser said, shield Trump from any political fallout.
"The first hundred thousand or so will be the easiest," the individual said. "Trump can just line them up and say, ‘There’s a rapist, there’s a thief, there’s a murderer.' Democrats don’t want to oppose that."
