Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich likened Denver’s Democrat mayor to a Civil War-era Confederate insurrectionist due to the mayor’s defense of illegal migrants.
Via his X account on Monday, Gingrich warned Denver Mayor Mike Johnston that the idea of “defying the federal government” was settled “when General Lee surrendered.”
The former House Speaker was comparing Johnston to a Confederate insurrectionist for the mayor’s defense of illegal migrants and noted that the question over nullifying federal law was settled by the Civil War, and that Johnston’s actions are no different than the insurrectionary acts of the Confederate States of America in the 1860s.
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“The mayor of Denver doesn’t seem to understand that the United States Army settled the question of states, counties and cities defying the federal government in a meeting at Appomattox in 1865 when General Lee surrendered,” Gingrich noted.
“Denver attempting to block the federal government detention and deportation of illegal aliens would be an act of insurrection and would be immediately crushed by the federal government,” Gingrich insisted.
Johnston has been puffing himself up as a defender of Joe Biden’s border crossers since Donald Trump won the election this month. At one point, Johnston blared that he would use the Denver Police Department as his shock troops to physically oppose officers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and prevent them from fulfilling federal law to repatriate illegals. Then, after walking that back, he pounded his chest in defiance again and said he would gladly risk being arrested for interfering with ICE activities.
Incoming Trump border czar, Tom Homan, though warned Johnston and other officials like him that he will have no problem at all arresting those who attempt to prevent ICE from doing its job.
“You’re absolutely breaking the law. All [Johnston] has to do [is] look at Arizona v. U.S., you’ll see that 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. Because there is a statute, it’s Title 8, United States Code, 1324 (iii), and what it says is it’s a felony if you knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien from immigration authorities. It is also a felony to impede a federal law enforcement officer,” Homan said on Monday.
“So, if you don’t want to help, that’s fine, he can get the hell out of the way,” Homan continued. “But we’re going to go do the job, President Trump has a mandate from the American people. We’ve got to secure this country, we’ve got to save American lives. And I find it shocking that any mayor of a city would say — President Trump’s been clear, we want to concentrate on public safety threats and national security threats, — I find it hard to believe that any mayor or governor would say they don’t want public safety threats removed from their neighborhoods.”
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Even John Sandweg, who served as acting ICE Director under President Obama, insists that many of the Democrat sanctuary city policies have gone way too far toward breaking federal laws.
Speaking to NewsNation’s Dan Abrams on Monday, Sandweg said many of these left-wing policies “undermine public safety.”
Sandweg said that if some “mayor says, I can’t have you, ICE, taking them because it creates a chilling effect, now victims are going to be scared to call when their immigrant spouse beats them up, those are legitimate concerns… Listen, some of these sanctuary policies went way too far, where you had convicted murderers being — where the locality would say, he’s a convicted murderer, but we’re not going to give you to ICE, even though he’s a foreign national. Obviously, those undermine public safety.”
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