Trump's D.C. Takeover Means He Can Ignore City Laws, Border Czar Says
Speaking with Fox News Wednesday, border czar Tom Homan spilled that Washington's sanctuary city status was irrelevant now that the president had federalized the capital's law enforcement.
'Does the fact that there's National Guard now there—it's a sanctuary city, like sanctuary cities across the country—but it's unique in that it has federal control, and now you have the National Guard on the ground side by side with ICE. Does that combination basically negate the sanctuary city status in Washington, D.C.? At least for these 30 days, in terms of what you can do there, Tom?' asked host Martha MacCallum.
'Yes,' Homan said, plainly. 'I think D.C. under federal control is not going to be a sanctuary city.
'We're working with the police hand in hand, and when we encounter a criminal illegal alien, they will be turned over to ICE,' the former acting director of ICE continued. 'And that's the way it should be.
'I'm not saying every illegal alien in D.C. is a criminal. But many are,' Homan said. 'There is no sanctuary for these people in the city of D.C.'
Washington's City Council unanimously approved the Sanctuary Values Amendment Act in 2019, and Mayor Muriel Bowser signed the act into law that same year. But Bowser has worked to undo that legacy since Trump returned to the White House, attempting to repeal Washington's sanctuary status law in a 300-page budget bill. In June, the D.C. City Council erased the language in the budget that would have killed the sanctuary law in the board's effort to retain the designation.
But Washington isn't the only sanctuary city in the hot seat. In late May, the Department of Homeland Security released a list of some 35 regions, including 13 states, that it considered to be 'deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws and endangering American citizens.' The states included California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, in addition to the nation's capital.
During a press conference Monday announcing the imminent takeover, Trump warned that several of America's liberal bastions could experience the same fate, specifically calling out New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Oakland.
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