'Game on': Incoming border czar Tom Homan blasts Illinois gov over claims state won't help feds with deportations

President-elect Donald Trump's pick for border czar, Tom Homan, blasted Illinois Governor JB Pritzker over his recent promise to keep Illinois as a sanctuary state, vying to prevent deportations from occurring.

After the blue state governor made the pledge upon Trump's win against Kamala Harris, Homan responded on Charlie Kirk's podcast, "Game on. We’ve got no problem going through him. I’ve got 20,000 men and women in ICE who are going to do their job with no apology." 

"And if any governor wants to stand in the way, go ahead and do it. We’ll see what happens. We’re not gonna be intimidated," Homan added. Pritzker said that the state of Illinois would be prepared to bring a lawsuit against the federal government if it withholds public funding over the sanctuary state policies.

"To anyone that comes to take away freedom and dignity of Illinoisans, I would remind you that a happy warrior is still a warrior," Pritzker said. Homan worked under Trump's first term as president as the leader of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and has over 30 years of immigration enforcement experience.

Homan has embraced the title of "border czar," one that was previously coined for Kamala Harris when President Joe Biden tasked her with immigration in the early days of his administration. Many have been critical of the Biden-Harris soft-border approach, which has led to criminal gangs flowing into the United States as well as known terrorists taking advantage of the porous border enforcement. 

Homan is seen as a hardliner on the border and has advocated for those in the country illegally to "self-deport" as well as more ICE agents going to "sanctuary cities" to help with deportations.

He has also vowed to dismantle the cartels that have ramped up efforts in human trafficking under the Biden-Harris administration: “They have killed more Americans than every terrorist organization in the world and Trump is committed to calling them terrorist organizations and using the full might of the United States Special Operations to take them out.”