Tom Homan, president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming “border czar,” announced this past weekend that any state or municipality that takes action to oppose the Trump administration’s mass deportation plan would lose federal funding as a result.
The threat by Homan, who served as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director under Trump during his first term in office, is consistent with his long-held views, as he’s stated in the past that local officials who disrupt ICE’s draconian immigration measures should be criminally charged.
Homan made his most recent statement in a Fox News interview on Sunday about the administration’s plan to deport millions of immigrants living in the U.S. — a plan that will inevitably separate families, deny residents their due process rights, and likely mistakenly sweep up legal residents and possibly even naturalized citizens. The plan will also likely involve the establishment of immigrant jails along the U.S. southern border, and will require use of the military.
Host Mark Levin posited a hypothetical during his conversation with Homan.
“If you have a governor who says, ‘I’m not gonna cooperate. … I’m gonna block you,’ well, then, federal funds should be slashed to that state, and I mean hugely so, so the people of that state understand that the governor is the responsible party, that the mayor’s the responsible party,” Levin said.
Homan agreed with the idea.
“That’s going to happen, I guarantee you,” he said, confirming the administration’s plans to retaliate against local governments.
Homan also indicated that his view was shared by the president-elect. “President Trump will do that,” Homan said in the interview.
It’s unclear what funds the incoming Trump administration could block, but it appears that Homan considers nothing off the table — including funding for transportation, health care services, food stamps, and much, much more.
Weeks ago, after Trump’s win in the 2024 presidential election, Homan issued a similar statement, warning local officials in areas of the country that have immigrant-friendly policies not to interfere with the administration’s actions.
“If [Democratic governors] are not willing to help, then get the hell out of the way, because ICE is going to do the job,” Homan said, describing Trump’s win as a “mandate” to enforce such inhumane measures.
Trump’s win, however, was not a “mandate,” at least according to data and the opinions of experts who study presidential politics.
The president-elect frequently peddled racist and debunked talking points about immigrants during his campaign.
“This rhetoric amounts to a modern-day blood libel and form of state sanctioned terrorism against vulnerable groups, all the while giving Trump and his white supremacist and proto-Nazi allies a platform to vilify immigrants, people of color, and others they deem disposable,” Henry Giroux, a cultural critic and McMaster University professor who sits on the board of directors for Truthout, wrote in an op-ed in October.
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