Top mayoral aide takes high road in response to Trump border czar's rhetoric

A top aide for Mayor Brandon Johnson tried to take the high road Tuesday after President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for border czar, Tom Homan, promised to make Chicago ground zero for mass deportations and warned Johnson that “if he doesn’t want to help, get the hell out of the way.”

Senior mayoral adviser Jason Lee said Homan’s comments came before a “partisan” and “political audience,” adding that Chicago can only hope “those contexts are different” from “how he might communicate in a formal capacity” with the mayor of Chicago.

“If he assumes the position to which he’s been nominated, he will then have responsibility to the people of the United States, just as the mayor has a responsibility to the people of Chicago. And any dealings will be on those terms,” Lee said Tuesday. “Hopefully, the rhetoric will live on one sphere and the governing will live in another.”

Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th), chair of the City Council’s Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said it’s “unfortunate to start off that way” with Trump’s pick for border czar.

But Vasquez hinted strongly that Johnson’s own post-election anti-Trump rhetoric may have exacerbated tensions even before the second Trump administration begins.

“I wouldn’t want to get into a chest-bumping exercise with these guys. I don’t think it’s particularly productive,” Vasquez said. “We just want to make sure that, if you’re living in Chicago, you feel safe. That’s our priority.”

Lee denied that the mayor has been as provocative with his own rhetoric as Homan and Trump have been with theirs.

“They don’t respond well to weakness or displays of weakness. They don’t necessarily respond to supplication, either,” Lee said. “That doesn’t mean that anyone should be going out of their way to be disrespectful. But the mayor’s comments were rooted in deep conviction about the values he holds and the values most Chicagoans hold that are threatened. He’s making sure he does what he can within the law to protect the people of Chicago.”

Lee was asked whether he’s concerned about Trump’s threat to withhold funding from local police departments that refuse to cooperate with mass deportations, as embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams has promised to do.

“I don’t live by fear I don’t think the mayor lives by fear," Lee said. "You can just live by preparedness and prepare for different outcomes. There’s a significant effort to be prepared. That’s all you can do.”

Johnson criss-crossed the country in support of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris after hosting her coronation at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Ever since Harris’ defeat, the mayor has said repeatedly that he would not allow Chicago police to be used essentially as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, saying it would “undermine” the “constitutional policing” reforms mandated by a federal consent decree.

“This is about restoring trust in the communities. You place police officers in a position where the local community can’t trust them? ... It’s just not responsible,” Johnson told reporters last month.

With both houses of Congress in Republican control, Johnson said Trump will have “more power than any president” in decades, but the “first thing” he wants to do is mass deportations, causing “upheaval and chaos” in Chicago and across the country. He branded Trump a “threat to everything that is sensible” and urged the president-elect to “stop playing games with the people.”