Trump border czar Tom Homan to Denver mayor: 'he's willing to go to jail, I'm willing to put him in jail'

After the Democratic mayor of Denver, Colorado vowed to not cooperate with the incoming Trump administration’s efforts to combat illegal immigration, including mass deportations, stating that he would risk jail time, President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming "border czar" Tom Homan responded, "Me and the Denver mayor, we agree on one thing: he's willing to go to jail, I'm willing to put him in jail."

According to News Channel 3, Mayor Mike Johnston has overseen a massive influx of illegal immigrants into the city, causing it to have to cut at least $45.9 million worth of expenses from multiple agencies. Notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has maintained a presence in the city.

Johnston previously predicted that Trump’s mass deportation plan would be a "Tiananmen Square moment," and claimed he was willing to go to jail to try and stop it. In an attempt to walk back the comments, he told Channel 9, that he supported limited deportations for those convicted of "serious crimes," and claimed he would be a "ready partner" if the plan was only to focus on violent criminals.

However, he told The Denverite that he would oppose deportation. “The short answer is, we won't change that because those are one of our core values. And we're not going to sell out those values to anyone. We're not going to be bullied into changing them.”

He added, “I think we are gonna continue to be a welcoming, open, big-hearted city that's gonna stand by our values,” claiming that “It's far more expensive and far worse for our communities to have people out on the streets begging for money or looking for public support. They're hard working and they want to be able to pay for themselves.”

Even if the Trump administration enlisted Denver police to help address illegal immigration, Johnston said he would refuse to cooperate. “Absolutely not. We won’t do it.”

Homan told Sean Hannity on Fox News Monday night, that sanctuary cities and states are “absolutely breaking the law.”

He continued, “But look, me and the Denver Mayor, we agree on one thing. He's willing to go to jail. I'm willing to put him in jail. Because there's a statute, it's Title 8, United States Code 1324, and what it says is, it's a felony if you knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien from immigration authorities.”

Homan added, “It's also a felony to impede a federal law enforcement officer. So if we don't get help, That's fine. He can get the hell out of the way. But we're going to go do the job. President Trump has a mandate for the American people. We got to secure this country. We got to save American lives.”

He noted, “I find it hard to believe that any mayor or governor would say they don't want public safety threats removed from their neighborhoods…I don't know what the hell is going on in Denver, but we're going to go and we're going to fix it. If he don't want to fix it, if he don't want to protect his communities, President Trump and ICE will.”