Mass deportations to begin in Chicago: Tom Homan

Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has said that “public safety threats, national security threats and fugitives” will be his priorities for deportations. “Chicago is in trouble because your mayor sucks and your governor sucks,” Homan told a gathering at the Northwest Side GOP holiday party, referring to Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) and Mayor Brandon Johnson (D-Chicago), who were also in attendance.

Homan continued to describe both Democratic politicians as “terrible” but encouraged them to follow the lead of Mayor Eric Adams (D-NYC) and be willing to “come to the table” and discuss how deportations will unfold. Homan also suggested that Johnson, who has emphatically decried deportations, should not “impede” the process, per the Daily Mail.

“If he doesn't want to help, get the hell out of the way,” Homan said. “If he knowingly harbors or conceals an illegal alien – I will prosecute him.” Homan has promised to “flood” US sanctuary cities with ICE agents to accomplish the task, while reminding Americans that the Trump administration is committed to destroying criminal cartels. Homan has even encouraged illegal immigrants to “self-deport."

Homan explained in Chicago on Monday that he needs to assess whether people calling themselves asylum seekers really are and he threatened to arrest anyone who is protecting criminal illegal aliens. The border czar said he has no plan to separate families but didn’t deny that “it may happen.”

“My goal is to enforce the law, but if you put yourself in that position, it may happen,” Homan said. “But there's no plan in this administration right now to separate families. However, we're going to enforce the law. So if you put yourself in that position it's on you," he said, explaining that Dreamer children – the offspring of illegal immigrant relationships – will have a choice to make.

“You can either take a child home with you or they just stay here,” Homan said. “But you don't get a pass.” Neither will those whom the courts don’t assess legitimately worthy of asylum. They will be deported too, Homan said. “If we don't, what the hell are we doing? Shut down immigration court?" he asked.

Saying that consequences are required for illegally entering the US, Homan said the deportations are neither racist nor random. “We know exactly who we're going to arrest. We know most likely where we're going to find them. We know a lot about them because of investigative case files. So it's not a sweep, it's not an uncontrolled operation. It's a very targeted operation.”

Chicago’s mayor has suggested the deportations are somehow racist. "His threat is not just towards new arrivals and undocumented families. His threats are also against black families … We're going to protect undocumented individuals," Johnson has pledged, while not adding that housing and feeding the surge of illegal immigrants in the city has helped create a $1 billion deficit for Chicago. "We're going to protect black folks, brown folks, Asian folks. The City of Chicago will be better, stronger and safer despite who's in the White House."