(Headline USA) Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., argued this week that the Democratic mayor of Denver could be removed from office for trying to obstruct President-elect Donald Trump’s deportation efforts.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) says that the mayor of Denver will be removed from office if he resists federal law enforcement officials who are deporting illegal aliens: "It's a form of insurrection" pic.twitter.com/P9e4fVxVxu
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 24, 2024
“If he’s going to resist federal law—which, there’s a long-standing history of the supremacy of federal law—he’s going to resist that, it will go all the way to the Supreme Court,” Paul told CBS News on Sunday. “And I would suspect that he would be removed from office.”
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston declared last week that he would fight back against Trump’s plan to deport illegal immigrants, even vowing to use city law enforcement to block federal immigration authorities from doing their job.
“More than us having [the Denver Police Department] stationed at the county line to keep them out, you would have 50,000 Denverites there,” Johnston claimed. “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.”
Johnston then encouraged city residents to publicly protest Trump’s plan.
According to Paul, Johnston’s defiance could be considered an act of “insurrection” in court.
“People need to realize that what he is … offering is a form of insurrection, where states resist the federal government,” Rand said. “Most people objected to that and rejected that long ago. So, I think the mayor of Denver is on the wrong side of history, and really, I think will face legal ramifications if he doesn’t obey the federal law.”
Trump’s incoming border czar, Tom Homan, has vowed that the Trump administration will defund and even arrest leaders such as Johnston who refuse to comply with federal immigration law.
“What governor or mayor doesn’t want public safety threats and national security threats out of their neighborhoods, out of their communities?” he said on Sunday. “That’s their number one responsibility.”
