The man chosen by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as the new border czar made an appearance in Chicago on Monday night, delivering a bold promise. Tom Homan attended a holiday party hosted by the Law and Order PAC and the Northwest Side GOP Club, where he pledged that the planned mass separation effort would begin in the Windy City: “Chicago’s in trouble because your mayor sucks and your governor sucks,” he said.
Homan announced that President-elect Donald Trump has tasked him with leading the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, set to begin in Chicago immediately after Trump’s inauguration on January 20. While Homan’s opening remarks suggested little room for collaboration, he later extended an invitation to Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker to join discussions and assist in implementing the historic deportation effort. “We’re going to start right here in Chicago, Illinois. If your Chicago mayor doesn’t want to help, he can step aside,” Homan told the crowd. “But if he impedes us—if he knowingly harbors or conceals an illegal alien—I will prosecute him.”
Homan stated that agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be present in Chicago when President-elect Trump takes office. “January 21st, you’re going to look for a lot of ICE agents in your city looking for criminals and gang members,” Homan said. “Count on it. It will happen.” Homan made the comments at the event on Monday night at Biagio Events and Catering, located at 4242 N. Central Ave. Mayor Johnson has not yet issued a comment, CBS News reported.
U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Illinois) discussed the proposed mass deportations during an interview with CBS News Chicago’s Dana Kozlov. “What he’s saying is invoking the same kind of fear that I have been seeing in (committee of) homeland security for the last two years,” Ramirez said. “Of course, they are going to try to target communities that understand, like Chicago, that immigrants have contributed to our economy.” Ramirez further stated that she is ready to stand alongside the mayor and governor to protect communities at both the city and state levels. She emphasized that with sanctuary city status in place, officials like herself are committed to upholding constitutional practices, the outlet said. The lawmaker added: “In the state of Illinois, we protect our immigrant communities.”
Some Chicago aldermen expressed support for Homan’s plan, including Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38th), who attended Homan’s speech.
“Made it perfectly clear—they’re going after the criminal element first,” said Sposato. “They’re not after dreamers. They’re after the criminal element first.” Sposato even captured part of the speech on camera. “And they’re not too happy with our governor and our mayor about protecting these criminals, and they’re going to work it from there,” he said. Also, Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) revealed that he met with Homan prior to the event and shared a post about their meeting on X, formerly known as Twitter. “He wants to work with the City of Chicago with law enforcement to identify just those specific individuals who are choosing to commit violent, dangerous crimes in our neighborhoods,” Lopez said.
For his part, Homan said that enforcement actions would target the illegal alien criminal element first but that no one in the country illegally “is off the table” in terms of deportation.
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