If Denver Mayor Mike Johnston wanted a fight, his wish was granted.
Both Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar,” and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) took Johnston to task after he said he was against President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to deport illegal immigrants.
Johnston recently said he was ready to go to jail if need be over Trump’s border policy.
“You are absolutely breaking the law,” Homan told Fox News. “All he has to do is look at Arizona v. U.S. and he would see he’s breaking the law. But, look, me and the Denver mayor, we agree on one thing. He’s willing to go to jail, I’m willing to put him in jail.”
Homan said it is necessary to secure the border and save lives.
“President Trump has been clear, we want to concentrate on public safety threats and national security threats. I find it hard to believe that any governor would say they don’t want public safety threats removed from their neighborhoods,” he said.
Paul told anchor Margaret Brennan on “Face The Nation” Sunday morning that Johnston’s opposition to the mass deportations proposed by Trump amounts to “form of insurrection.”
“The stated Trump plan is to use the military or military assets, deputize the National Guard, and have them act as immigration agents. Do you believe that is lawful?” Brennan asked Paul.
“You know, I’m 100% supportive of going after the 15,000 murderers, the 13,000 sexual assault perpetrators, rapist, all of these people. Let’s send them on their way to prison or back home to another prison,” Paul said. “So I would say all points bulletin all in. But you don’t do it with the army because it’s illegal. And we’ve we’ve had a distrust of putting the army into our streets because the police have a difficult job. But the police understand the Fourth Amendment. They have to go to judges. They have to get warrants. It has to be specific. And so I’m for removing these people. But I would do it through the normal process of domestic policing.”
Johnston recently said he would block mass deportations with the use of cops and 50,000 residents “stationed at the county line” to “keep out” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents
He referred to it as a “Tiananmen Square moment.”
“Now, I would say that the mayor of Denver, if he’s going to resist federal law, which there’s a long standing, standing history of the supremacy of federal law, he’s going to resist that. It will go all the way to the Supreme Court. And I would suspect that he would be removed from office,” Paul said. “I don’t know whether or not that would be a criminal prosecution for someone resisting federal law. But he will lose.”
“And people need to realize that what he is offering is a form of insurrection where the states resist the federal government. Most people objected to that and rejected that long ago,” Paul added. “So I think the mayor of Denver is on the wrong side of history and really, I think will face legal ramifications if he doesn’t obey the federal law.”
