Rand Paul on Sunday issued a warning to the mayor of Denver: Don't try to foil the coming Trump administration's plans for mass deportations of undocumented migrants. On Face the Nation, the Kentucky senator referenced Mayor Mike Johnston's suggestion that police and city residents would block federal efforts to deport people, per the Hill. The mayor is "on the wrong side of history" and would pay the consequences, he warned. "I would suspect that he would be removed from office."
- "I don't know whether or not that would be a criminal prosecution for someone resisting federal law," Paul added. "But he will lose. And people need to realize that what he is offering is a form of insurrection where the states resist the federal government."
Paul's comments come after the mayor told Denverite that it wouldn't work to mobilize the National Guard to round up migrants in the city:
- "More than us having (Denver police) stationed at the county line to keep them out, you would have 50,000 Denverites there," Johnston said. "It's like the Tiananmen Square moment with the rose and the gun, right? You'd have every one of those Highland moms who came out for the migrants. And you do not want to mess with them."
Denver is a self-described "sanctuary city" that has seen an influx of 41,000 migrants over the past two years, per Colorado Politics. It's not clear exactly how the Trump administration's plan would play out, but incoming "border czar" Tom Homan has promised deportations on a historic scale, starting with criminals first. (More Denver stories.)