By GREG BISHOP

Illinois Radio Network

CHICAGO, Ill. (IRN) — Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says he is not intimidated by the federal government increasing immigration enforcement in migrant sanctuary cities.

Trump border czar Tom Homan said during a news conference Monday in New York that they are going to “flood the zone” of migrant sanctuary cities, or jurisdictions that are not cooperating with federal immigration officials.

“You want to release [illegal alien criminal defendant] into the street, which makes it unsafe for the community, makes it unsafe for the officer, makes it unsafe for the inmates,” Homan said. “And anything can happen on the street or arrest.”

Leading a news conference about going after people smoking on public transit in Chicago on Tuesday, Johnson was asked about Homan’s comments.

“We’re not going to be intimidated or buckle under some threat that’s coming from an individual that can hardly tie his shoes and bend over,” Johnson said. “Not going to do it.”

Chicago is a defendant in a lawsuit the U.S. Department of Justice filed in February, challenging state and local policies that prevent Illinois law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration officials. Illinois and Cook County are also defendants in that lawsuit.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said federal immigration officials are “attacking people in the city of Chicago.”

“There are many people who have been here for decades, paying taxes, law abiding, raising their children, good members of their community, when you’re attacking those people in my state, I don’t want you here,” Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference in Chicago Tuesday.

Homan said they have to increase activity because migrant sanctuary jurisdictions aren’t cooperating with ICE officials.

“If we can’t arrest that bad guy in the safety and security of a county jail, doing them in the community or resident in jail, and we arrest him in the community, if he’s with others that are in the country illegally, they’re coming too,” Homan said.