In an interview with Fox News Channel’s Neil Cavuto on Tuesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Thomas Homan said the federal government should consider charging politicians who enact sanctuary city laws to protect criminal illegal aliens “with crimes.”

Partial transcript as follows:

HOMAN: We got to work with the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice needs to do a couple things. Number one, they need to file charges against the sanctuary cities. Number two, they need to hold back their funding. Another thing they need to do, they need to hold these politicians personally accountable. I mean, more citizens are going to die because of these policies and these politicians can’t make these decisions and be held unaccountable for people dying. I mean, we need to hold these politicians accountable for their actions.

CAVUTO: Does the president share your views, sir?

HOMAN: Absolutely he does.

CAVUTO: He’s told you that?

HOMAN: The president is totally against sanctuary cities. He knows, as well as I do that people are dying, people are being victimized by illegal aliens in this country and there are certain sanctuary cities that don’t want to cooperate with us. Look, this is about the American public. This is about the U.S. citizens being victimized by some of these criminal illegal aliens. We’ve got to hold sanctuary cities accountable. This is going to continue. The crime rate in California is going to increase.

At least 50 percent of these criminal aliens being released back into the public re-offend the first year. Seventy-five percent will re-offend in 5 years. This is a victimization of the American community. This isn’t the America I grew up in. We’ve got to take these sanctuary cities on. We’ve got to take them to court and start charging some of these politicians with crimes.