Congress

Homan tells Democrats to ‘get the hell out of the way’ on immigration

Published

2 years ago

December 10, 2024

CHICAGO — Donald Trump’s choice to lead border security efforts promised a hard line on enforcement in a speech Monday to Chicago Republicans, with apparently little room for leniency even for the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants.

Tom Homan, who has been picked to serve as “border czar” in the new administration, said the children of non-citizens would be part of the wave of deportations promised by the incoming administration.

“When you have a child, that’s on you. I’m not looking to separate families at all. That’s not my goal. My goal is to enforce the law,” Homan said. “But if you put yourself in that position, it may happen.”

His remarks showed none of the flexibility that Trump himself seemed to suggest in a weekend interview, when he said that he favored some kind of resolution for the status of people brought to the country long ago as children by illegal immigrants – so-called “dreamers.”

“We have to do something about the dreamers because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker.”

Homan, Trump’s former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director offered a red meat approach to an audience that represents a small group – Republicans in a city that voted 77 percent for Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Chicago is in trouble because your mayor sucks and your governor sucks,” Homan said in reference to Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Once the applause subsided, Homan called on Johnson and Pritzker, along with other Democrats who favor shielding migrants in “sanctuary” cities and states, to work with immigration enforcement authorities like Mayor Eric Adams has done in New York.

Pritzker has pushed back at the promised wave of mass deportations that Trump has said would be a feature of his second administration. “You come for my people, you come through me,” the governor said recently.

Homan said he would “welcome” Illinois Democratic leaders to “come to the table,” on enforcement. “Help us protect you,” he said. “Please. But if you don’t, get the hell out of the way.”

“We’re gonna get some results,” he said. “We’re gonna be arresting a hell of a lot more people.”

As he left the event, Homan told Blue Light News he had not reached out to the governor or mayor and that they should call him. “They need to reach out to me. Just like the mayor of New York reached out.”

Chicago Alderman Nicholas Sposato, one of less than a handful of Trump supporters on the 50-member City Council, said he liked what he heard from Homan and doesn’t think Illinois or Chicago’s sanctuary status needs to precent ICE from doing its work.

“It means law enforcement just has to stay out of the way,” Sposato said.

Congress

Fetterman says Democrats were ‘horribly wrong’ to try eliminating Senate filibuster

Published

43 minutes ago

July 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) is backpedaling on his previous calls to eliminate the filibuster in the Senate — which is a critical bulwark against “a fill-in-the-blank government with new laws, deregulation or procedures of its choosing,” he wrote in a Washington Post op-ed published Monday.

“A Senate without the filibuster [would become] a Senate that ignored the voices of the minority and everyday people,” he wrote, elaborating on previous comments. Last month, he told Katie Miller that Democrats were “so wrong” about opposing the filibuster.

“We cannot become a smaller version of the House of Representatives,” he wrote in his op-ed.

In 2022, Fetterman campaigned to abolish the filibuster, a 60-vote rule that effectively requires a supermajority to pass most legislation. His argument on the trail — which remains on his campaign website as of Monday afternoon — was that the rule stood “in the way of getting things done for Pennsylvanians.”

At that time, many Senate Democrats and activists argued the same publicly, as the party attempted to pass a sweeping overhaul of elections that Democrats said would better protect voting rights. But two then-Democratic senators, Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) — protested against throwing out the rule, saying it would hurt the party’s priorities in the long run.

Ultimately the filibuster survived and Democrats did not pass their voting rights bill, with much of the party base heaping scorn on Manchin and Sinema.

Now, with Republicans holding a government trifecta, the power dynamic has flipped.

President Donald Trump is now urging Republican senators to kill the filibuster, which has stalled passage of the SAVE America Act. He turned the screws on Majority Leader John Thune on Monday, demanding that Thune keep the Senate in session until the GOP-backed elections bill passes.

“John Thune should not allow the United States Senate to ‘leave town’ until it passes The Save America Act or, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER, where Republicans can then quickly pass everything they ever dreamed of,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

The filibuster has been a block against GOP-championed causes, Fetterman argued: “We could have extreme policies such as nationwide abortion restrictions, backpedaling on LGBT rights, repeal of birthright citizenship and limited voting rights across the country. … Republicans could fundamentally change the entire government and country with a simple majority vote.”

With the midterms approaching, Democrats face a tight battle to win back the Senate. The next time they have a trifecta, the filibuster will — once again — be a thorn in the party’s side, complicating the passage of key priorities.

Democrats “will once again have to find common ground with our Republican colleagues,” Fetterman said. “We will need to abandon our worst impulses as a party and work together to find solutions to the problems Americans face.”

Congress

McConnell to remain in rehab, will skip Fancy Farm picnic in Kentucky

Published

1 hour ago

July 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Monday that he will remain in rehab as he continues to recover from a June fall that left him briefly unconscious.

In a statement, McConnell shared that he is “working hard” to return to a full schedule but remains in “intense physical therapy.”

The Office of the Attending Physician (OAP) confirmed that medical staff visit the senator daily to discuss “all aspects of his rehabilitation care” but added he is “not yet medically cleared to leave the rehab facility and return to office.”

“Since his discharge from hospital care, he has maintained a strenuous course of physical therapy and rehabilitation, including multiple sessions a day designed to rebuild strength and reduce the risk of future falls,” the OAP said. “His bout with childhood polio continues to be a significant factor in his mobility.”

McConnell, 84, was rushed to the hospital on June 14 following the fall and what he described as a “mild case of pneumonia.” In a letter to constituents earlier this month, he said that while he was briefly knocked unconscious, he did not suffer any broken bones, a stroke or a heart attack. It is unclear when McConnell was discharged.

But his continued rehab stay means McConnell will miss Kentucky’s premier political event: the annual Fancy Farm Picnic.

“There’s no place I’d rather be on the first Saturday in August than with the good people of western Kentucky, feasting on pork and mutton,” McConnell said Monday. “I hate that I’ll miss the fun this year, but I’m sending my best wishes to the St. Jerome community for a successful picnic.”

McConnell, who is retiring when his current term concludes in January, has faced a series of health challenges in recent years. In 2023, he froze twice while speaking to reporters. He has also experienced several other falls and, at one point, used a wheelchair as what his office called a precautionary measure.

Congress

Trump tells Thune to keep Senate in session to pass SAVE America Act

Published

4 hours ago

July 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump ramped up pressure Monday on Majority Leader John Thune, telling him to keep the Senate in session until a GOP election bill passes.

Democrats, he added, will nix the filibuster themselves when they regain power “and can’t believe how lucky they got with this Senate leadership. Remember, stupidity always brings LOSING & DEATH!”

Trump’s Truth Social post comes after he urged supporters last week to call Thune about the SAVE America Act, then said Friday that he wanted Senate Republicans to adopt a blueprint for a $95 billion party-line spending bill, which would include some election-related funding, before they leave town for the August recess as planned on Aug. 6.

Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said over the weekend that they believed the Senate should stay in town until the election bill is passed. Lee has previously called for the Senate to stay in session through prior recesses to pass the SAVE America Act but has not forced the issue on the floor.

Despite Trump’s pressure campaign, the elections bill doesn’t have the votes to pass the Senate and there isn’t enough support within the Senate Republican conference for nixing the filibuster, which requires 60 votes for most legislation to advance.