President Donald Trump is inking new executive orders that would target ‘sanctuary cities’ in liberal enclaves – and direct authorities to yank back billions in federal revenue if necessary.
The cities, including New York, Chicago and Boston, have established laws protecting migrants amid ICE deportation efforts going after people who came here illegally.
The issue burst back into the forefront with the arrest of a Wisconsin judge was charged with helping an undocumented immigrant who was in her courtroom avoid arrest.
The order directs the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security to identify jurisdictions that aren’t cooperating with the feds as they carry out law enforcement operations as part of Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
‘It’s quite simple,’ White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at the White House on Monday.
‘Obey the law, respect the law, and don’t obstruct federal immigration officials and law enforcement officials when they are simply trying to remove public safety threats from our nation’s communities.’
Once the agencies identify the ‘sanctuary cities,’ cabinet secretaries are to tabulate how much federal aid they get.
For those that ‘remain’ sanctuary jurisdictions, AG Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem then ‘shall pursue all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures to end these violations and bring such jurisdictions into compliance with the laws of the United States.’
President Donald Trump inked the executive order Monday
The agencies also ‘shall identify and take appropriate action to stop the enforcement of State and local laws, regulations, policies, and practices favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens that are unlawful, preempted by Federal law, or otherwise unenforceable.’
Efforts to strip federal funding are certain to provoke a court challenge. Many of Trump’s 140 executive orders from his first 100 days are already facing legal challenges.
Another order requires truck drivers to speak English and pass literacy tests.
‘Proficiency in English … should be a non-negotiable safety requirement for professional drivers,’ according to the order. ‘They should be able to read and understand traffic signs, communicate with traffic safety, border patrol, agricultural checkpoints, and cargo weight-limit station officers. Drivers need to provide feedback to their employers and customers and receive related directions in English. This is common sense.’
The order targets ‘sanctuary cities’ like Chicago amid the deportation push
AG Pam Bondi would review jurisdictions and pursue ‘all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures’ for those that remain sanctuary jurisdictions
A third order relates to law enforcement communication. The cities and states receive billions in federal aid (while also contributing billions in tax dollars to Washington).
Trump signed the orders behind closed doors.
Trump launched an aggressive enforcement campaign after taking office, surging troops to the southern border and pledging to deport millions of immigrants in the United States illegally.
The Republican president, who made immigration a major campaign issue in 2024, said the actions were needed after years of high illegal immigration under his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.
White House officials at a press briefing touted a steep decline in illegal crossings at the border during Trump’s first three months in office – even as concerns have emerged over the due process rights of immigrants and U.S. citizens swept up in the dragnet.
The U.S. Border Patrol arrested 7,200 migrants illegally crossing the border in March, the lowest monthly total since 2000 and down from a peak of 250,000 in December 2023.
‘We have the most secure border in the history of this nation and the numbers prove it,’ Trump border czar Tom Homan said at the briefing.
Democrats and civil rights advocates have criticized Trump’s heightened enforcement tactics, including the cases of several U.S.-citizen children recently deported with their parents. One of the children had a rare form of cancer, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Homan blamed the parents for putting their children at risk of deportation by remaining in the United States.
‘If you choose to have a U.S.-citizen child, knowing you’re in this country illegally, you put yourself in that position,’ he said.
In his first hundred days in office, Trump has moved to strip legal immigration status from hundreds of thousands of people, increasing the pool of those who can potentially be deported.
While arrests of immigrants in the United States illegally have spiked, deportations remain below last year’s levels under Biden when there were more people illegally crossing the border who could be quickly returned.
Deportations were down in Trump’s first three months in office from 195,000 last year to 130,000 this year, Reuters reported last week. Homan defended the figures and said it was not fair to compare them to Biden-era tallies.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities have been over capacity, with some 48,000 in custody as of early April, beyond the funded level of 41,500.
Homan said that Texas military base Fort Bliss could be ready ‘in the very near future’ to hold migrant detainees. The Trump administration has already been using the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Photos posted on the White House lawn featured 100 people charged or convicted of serious crimes, including murder, rape and fentanyl distribution. Numerous studies show immigrants do not commit crimes at a higher rate than native-born Americans.
SANCTUARY STANDOFF
Trump has criticized cities and states that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, labeling them ‘sanctuaries’ and blaming them for releasing criminal offenders instead of coordinating their transfer to ICE.
Last week, a federal judge blocked Trump’s administration from withholding federal funding from more than a dozen so-called sanctuary jurisdictions that have declined to cooperate with Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown.
U.S. officials arrested a Wisconsin judge on Friday and `charged her with helping a man in her court briefly evade immigration authorities. The arrest triggered backlash from Democrats and immigrant rights advocates who raised concerns that immigrant victims may not feel safe in courthouses.
Homan defended the arrest, saying that the administration would enforce laws prohibiting harboring of a person in the United States illegally.
‘You will be prosecuted, judge or not,’ he said.
Americans are split on Trump’s immigration approach, but he has a 45% approval rating on immigration, better than other major issues, a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in mid-April found.
