Trump administration immigration czar Tom Homan threatened to prosecute New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy after the Democratic leader suggested over the weekend he might house a person with uncertain legal immigration status above his garage.
“Well, I think the governor is pretty foolish saying what he said because I’ve gotten hold of it, won’t let it go, we’re looking into it, and if he’s knowingly harboring and concealing an illegal alien, that’s a violation,” Homan told Fox News on Monday.
“Maybe he’s bluffing. Maybe he’s not, we’ll deal with that,” Homan added, suggesting he will “seek prosecution” if Murphy is found to violate a federal law prohibiting people from housing undocumented people.
The threat comes after Murphy said during a forum over the weekend at Montclair State University with a progressive group that he’d toyed with the idea of housing a migrant himself.
“I don’t want to get into too much detail, but there’s someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not yet at the point that they are trying to get it to,” Murphy said. “We said, ‘You know what? Let’s have her live at our house above our garage, and good luck to the feds trying to come in and get her.’”
Facing criticism, the governor’s office later told The Associated Press the governor’s comments were about someone who was in the country legally but still worried about their status, and that Murphy never followed through on the hypothetical offer to house the woman.
The back-and-forth is the latest sign of tension between New Jersey and the White House over immigration.
The state and many of its major cities limit cooperation between police and federal immigration enforcement.
Last month, a fish market in the city of Newark was the target of a high-profile immigration raid, which local officials said was carried out without a warrant and led to the arrest of at least one U.S. citizen and a military veteran.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said the “egregious” arrests were “in plain violation” of the Fourth and 14th Amendments.
“Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorized,” he said.
New Jersey isn’t the only left-leaning jurisdiction in the crosshairs.
Last month, Trump signed executive orders directing federal prosecutors to investigate and potentially bring charges against state and local officials who don’t assist in the administration’s campaign of mass deportations. The White House has also directed agencies to investigate how to cut so-called sanctuary jurisdictions off from federal funds.
Officials in such jurisdictions have criticized this posture.
“This is a scare tactic, plain and simple. The President is attempting to intimidate and bully state and local law enforcement into carrying out his mass deportation agenda for him,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta wrote in a statement last month. “We’ll be prepared to take legal action if the Trump Administration’s vague threats turn to illegal action.”
Before taking office, Homan reportedly threatened the mayor of Chicago with prosecution.
“If your Chicago mayor doesn’t want to help, he can step aside,” Homan reportedly told a local Republican club. “But if he impedes us — if he knowingly harbors or conceals an illegal alien — I will prosecute him.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson has defended his city’s sanctuary policies while saying he wouldn’t work to protect migrants accused of criminal offenses.
“What the Trump administration has called for is for local police departments around the country to behave as ICE agents. In sanctuary cities, that is not permissible,” Johnson told previously CNN.
“If there is someone here in this country that commits a violent crime and they are undocumented, they are in the hands of the law,” he added. “That is clear.”
