Acting ICE Director Wants to Ignore Constitution, Arrest Local Leaders for Sanctuary City Policies

By Josh Israel, ThinkProgress

03 January 18

Tom Homan might want to do some legal research.

onald Trump’s handpicked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) pick — the current acting director of the agency — said on Tuesday that he wants the Department of Justice to personally charge elected officials who do not comply with the administration’s immigration enforcement requests with federal crimes.

On Fox News, Tom Homan expressed outrage that a new law in state of California prevents the federal government from using state and local government resources to carry out immigration enforcement. The new law also limits how much state and local officials have to comply with federal immigration detention requests prior to conviction — making California the first “sanctuary state.”

After promising to send more ICE resources to California, Homan urged the Department of Justice to sue those who do not comply with his agency’s requests and to hold officials criminally responsible.

“I think we charge some of these sanctuary citizens with violating federal law. I think if they knowingly harbor and shield a known illegal alien, a public safety threat, in a jail and won’t give us access,” he said, the DOJ should charge the cities and politicians. “They need to hold these politicians personally accountable,” he explained,

“We’ve got to take the sanctuary cities on, we’ve got to take them to court, and we’ve got to start charging some of these politicians with crimes.”

Watch:

Homan might want to do some legal research.  The Supreme Court has expressly said in multiple court cases that the federal government cannot commandeer state or local governments to enforce federal laws.

The Trump administration has strongly criticized states’ rights when it comes to immigration enforcement, while defending them as a justification for states to discriminate against transgender kids.