President-elect Trump’s pick for “border czar,” Tom Homan, on Sunday threatened funding for states that refuse to cooperate in the federal government’s deportation plans.
Fox News’s Mark Levin, in an interview with Homan aired Sunday, said the border czar will have “a very, very powerful weapon that the Democrats, when they’re in power, use against Republican administrations, state and local, all the time: federal funding.”
“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 added.
Homan agreed with Levin, saying “that’s going to happen, I guarantee ya,” adding that the president-elect “will do that.”
Trump and Homan have made headlines for their tough talk on the border, including threats to use military assets to help carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Trump transition team spokesperson Karoline Leavitt has also said the president-elect “will marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals, drug dealers, and human traffickers in American history while simultaneously lowering costs for families.”
Some Democratic governors, including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have promised to stand up to the incoming Trump administration, with Pritzker warning that if someone attempts to “come for my people, you come through me.”
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) has said that she “will work with the Trump administration to continue efforts on border security,” but “will not tolerate terrorizing communities or threatening Arizonans.”
Homan said Sunday that Democrats needed to put aside their feelings about Trump and cooperate.
“I’ll say this: President Trump has made it clear, we’re going to prioritize public safety threats and national security threats right out of the gate [because] they pose the most danger to this country. What governor or mayor doesn’t want public safety threats and national security threats out of their neighborhoods, out of their communities?” Homan said Sunday.
“That’s their number one responsibility. So you can hate Trump all you want, but you gotta love your community more than you hate President Trump,” he added.
