CNN anchor Kasie Hunt was visibly shaken after hearing incoming border czar Tom Homan say he would jail Denver Mayor Mike Johnston if he didn’t cooperate with Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan.
In an appearance last Monday with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Homan said: ‘The mayor of Denver and I agree on one thing; He is willing to go to jail. I’m willing to put him in jail.
Hunt played this clip on his show Wednesday and had a visceral reaction before insisting that Homan’s rhetoric was “more extreme” than what the Trump campaign had said in the run-up to Election Day.
“That has some significant and more extreme echoes than some of what we heard from the Trump campaign along the way,” Hunt said.
Johnston has said Denver police will not be involved in immigration enforcement and maintains that illegal immigrants who commit low-level crimes will not be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency under which Homan served under President Barack Obama and Trump.
In response to Homan’s threat to arrest the mayors of so-called sanctuary cities, Johnston said he is “not afraid” of being jailed.
Soon, Homan will become the president-elect’s right-hand man to oversee Trump’s promise of the “largest deportation program in American history.”
“Let me be clear: There is going to be a mass deportation because we just ended a massive illegal immigration crisis at the border,” Homan said last week. ‘It is a serious crime to knowingly harbor illegal and covert anti-immigration authorities. The nation wants a safe country.”
Kasie Hunt, pictured, was visibly shocked that incoming border czar Tom Homan threatened Denver Mayor Mike Johnston with prison.
Homan said last week that he and Johnston “agree on one thing: He’s willing to go to jail.” ‘I’m willing to put him in jail’
Hunt also showed a clip of Johnston arguing that Trump’s deportation plan will in practice be unpopular.
“If they’re going to send the U.S. military or the Navy Seals to Denver to go after people, to get them out of their jobs in hotels or restaurants where they work or to get kids off the soccer field, I think we’re going to see the residents of Denver and people across the country who will resist that nonviolently,” Johnston said.
After the Republicans’ election victory, Trump and Homan have said they are willing to use the military to deport illegal immigrants, and Trump hinted that he might declare a national emergency.
Hunt asked former Trump White House communications director Mike Dubke what he thought of Trump and Homan’s rhetoric, specifically threats to arrest the mayors.
“Tom Homan’s very strong language is going to restrict and impede the number of people who are actually flooding the border,” Dubke said.
“Are you saying this will discourage people from trying to come?” Hunt continued.
“We totally discourage that,” the former Trump aide responded. ‘That’s very important and it’s something we saw: when the Biden administration came in, there was a flood for a reason. The tone of the rhetoric was lowered.
The governors of Illinois, Massachusetts and Arizona, a state Trump won in 2024, have said they will not help Trump’s deportation efforts.
Homan has said he is willing to use the US military to carry out mass deportations of illegal immigrants across the country.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston defended his city’s stance on illegal immigrants even as it was revealed that it has spent $356 million of taxpayer money on their health care, education and more.
However, Johnston has become a leading voice in opposition to Homan’s goals.
It was revealed last week in a new study that Denver has spent a staggering $356 million of taxpayer money on immigrants in the city, amid growing resentment from residents who say the migrant crisis has crippled the city.
The figure was revealed by the Common Sense Institute (CSI), upon discovering that Johnston has spent the equivalent of $7,900 per migrant in his city.
Denver’s sanctuary city status has come under scrutiny amid the huge influx of migrants, which CSI estimates has seen around 45,000 migrants arrive in the Colorado city since December 2022.
Despite Johnston’s insistence that he will hinder deportations, he has already been forced to take drastic measures this year to address the problem, including cutting $30 million in public services and contingency funds from taxpayer coffers. .