Incoming "border czar" Tom Homan said he expects a good working relationship with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who endured four years of tension with outgoing President Joe Biden.
Homan on Tuesday visited Texas to assess the situation at the Texas-Mexico border and planned to serve holiday meals to soldiers stationed at Eagle Pass and Edinburg.
"Gov. Abbott has done a great job so far. Look, illegal crossings in Texas are down over 80% thanks to the great work by Gov. Abbott because he's taken the [President-elect Donald] Trump policies and put them to work," Homan told Fox News. "He's put floating barriers and wall up. Walls work; President Trump proved that. He has consequences, he's arresting people and charging those that cross that border. Consequences work."
Homan still anticipates resistance from Democrat mayors and governors after the new administration takes power in January.
Last week, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston threatened a "Tiananmen Square moment" of utilizing tens of thousands of Mile High City residents to prevent Trump from enforcing his plan to deport illegal immigrants. Denver has accepted nearly 40,000 illegal migrants since December 2022, the largest figure per capita in the U.S."
"Me and the Denver mayor, we agree on thing," Homan said on Fox News. "He's willing to go to jail. I'm willing to put him in jail."
Johnston's threat comes on the heels of Democrat governors, including J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Jared Polis of Colorado, who launched Governors Safeguarding Democracy two weeks earlier, an initiative designed to resist Trump's American First mandate by ignoring federal immigration law.
Homan, meanwhile, has denied allegations that the administration plans to remove U.S. citizens under the planned mass deportation operation.
During a "60 Minutes" interview in October, Homan said "families can be deported" together, leaving many to assume U.S. citizens would be included.
Homan said in October that mass deportations will begin with criminals.
"And that's gonna happen, I guarantee, if President Trump wins," Homan said at the time. "Trump has made clear, we're going to prioritize public safety threats and national security threats."