Acting ICE Director: DOJ Should Charge Politicians Running Sanctuary Cities

On Tuesday, Thomas Homan, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, gave Neil Cavuto a newsworthy interview on Fox News. During a discussion of sanctuary cities, Homan pushed a ridiculous idea: local government officials in charge of said sanctuary cities should face criminal penalties. “We’ve got to start charging some of these politicians with crimes.” he said, adding that they should be held “personally accountable.”

Discussing California’s new “sanctuary state” law, Homan described it as “terrible” and claimed that Gov. Jerry Brown “is knowingly putting law enforcement at risk.” Expressing further indignation, he also added that Jeff Sessions’ Department of Justice should “file charges against the sanctuary cities” while looking to “hold back their funding.”

“Well, look: If he thinks he’s protecting the immigrant community, he’s doing quite the opposite, because if he thinks ICE is going away, we’re not,” he said of Brown. Homan added that ICE is greatly increasing its own presence in the state in the meantime. Throughout, he insists that this puts California residents, especially law enforcement, at greater risk, even invoking Kate Steinle in spite of her parents distancing themselves from the politicization of her death. The director also implied, by saying “he killed that girl,” that Steinle’s death was a murder and not an accident.

“I mean, more citizens are gonna die because of these policies,” he added, seemingly citing Steinle again.

When asked by Cavuto if the president shares his opinions on the matter, Homan said he did, but he didn’t directly answer when asked in a follow-up if President Trump specifically told him that people would die because of sanctuary city policies. Homan concluded the interview by stressing that Trump is against sanctuary cities without delving into the specifics that Cavuto tried to get out of him.