Trump border czar Tom Homan isn’t letting this slide. He vowed to "look into" New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s comments that seemed to challenge the administration to "get" an illegal immigrant Murphy claimed was staying at his home.
"I think the governor is pretty foolish saying what he said because I've gotten a hold of it. We won't let it go. We'll look into it," Homan said on Hannity Monday night. "Then, if he's knowingly harboring and concealing an illegal alien, that's a violation of Title 8, United States Code 1324. I will seek prosecution or the secretary will seek prosecution."
"Maybe he's bluffing. If he's not, we'll deal with that," he added.
Murphy made the controversial statement over the weekend during an interview with the progressive group Blue Wave New Jersey. His words quickly caught national attention.
"Tammy [Murphy] and I were talking about – I don’t want to get into too much detail, but there is someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not yet at the point that they are trying to get it to," Murphy said. "And we said, you know what? Let's have her live at our house above our garage."
Then came the challenge. "And good luck to the feds coming in to try to get her," Murphy added, hinting the person could be in the country illegally.
A source close to the governor later tried to clear things up. "No one ever actually moved into his home, so not for a month, not for a week, not for an hour, not for a day," the source told Fox News Digital.
The source also insisted there was no wrongdoing. "He was just talking about someone in his broader orbit who was on edge over the broader climate and was concerned," they explained. "He mentioned, not even to the person, he mentioned to someone else that they could move in if they want, so I think that’s where some of the misunderstanding was."
To put the matter to rest, the source added, "The person wasn’t undocumented. The person was a legal resident of the United States of America."