“BRING IT ON, TRUMP”: Hoboken Mayor Spars with President, ICE on Twitter

(ABOVE: photo via twitter.com/RaviBhalla)

Hoboken’s newly inaugurated Mayor Ravi Bhalla has challenged the President on twitter, as the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) calls for the arrest of politicians in sanctuary cities.

ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan told FOX News that the Department of Justice needs “to file charges against the sanctuary cities” and “hold back their funding.”

Homan was been picked by President Trump to permanently run the agency in December, pending confirmation. The acting director went on to say that politicians enforcing sanctuary city policies need to be held “personally accountable.”

“We gotta take [sanctuary cities] to court, and we gotta start charging some of these politicians with crimes,” he said.

In his first act as Mayor, Ravi Bhalla signed an Executive Order designating “Hoboken a Fair & Welcoming City.” The move is meant to ensure that “the law shall be equal irrespective of immigration status, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any means of identification.”

Specifically, Bhalla declared that “our Police Department will not expend resources enforcing civil immigration law, unless required to do so by state or federal law or a court order.”

In response to Acting Director Homan’s comments, Mayor Bhalla had this to say:

Bring it on @realDonaldTrump @ICEgov Our rights are protected by the United States Constitution and I will not be bullied by your administration. https://t.co/kRFj5h68Db

— Ravinder S. Bhalla (@RaviBhalla) January 3, 2018

Born and raised in New Jersey, Mayor Bhalla is a 17 year resident of Hoboken. He is the first Sikh to hold the office of Mayor in New Jersey.