Acting ICE director Thomas Homan. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Acting ICE director Thomas Homan, who will become the permanent head of the agency if President Trump has his way, thinks it’s time to start arresting politicians in sanctuary cities and charging them with crimes.

In an interview Tuesday with Fox News Channel’s Neil Cavuto, Homan said political leaders in sanctuary cities, which don’t cooperate with ICE officials looking to make immigration arrests, are breaking the law when they “knowingly shield and harbor an illegal alien.”

“That is a violation of 8 USC 1324. That’s an alien-smuggling statute. I’ve asked the Department of Justice to look at this,” he said. “Can we hold them accountable? Are they violating federal law?”

When Cavuto pressed Homan on what he’d do if the Justice Department decides that federal law is being violated, he suggested that politicians be held “personally accountable.”

“We’ve got to take these sanctuary cities on. We’ve got to take them to court and we’ve got to start charging some of these politicians with crimes.”

And Homan, who has called sanctuary cities “un-American,” appears to want California governor Jerry Brown locked up first. In October, Brown signed a bill making California the nation’s first “sanctuary state.” The law, which went into effect on January 1, “bars law enforcement officers in the state from arresting individuals based on civil immigration warrants, asking about a person’s immigration status or participating in any joint task force with federal officials for the purpose of enforcing immigration laws,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

In a signing statement, Brown wrote that the law “will protect public safety, while bringing a measure of comfort to those families who are now living in fear every day.”

Homan see things differently. “The state of California better hold on tight,” he told Cavuto. “More citizens are going to die because of these policies.”