Trump to pull all federal funding going to sanctuary cities

President Trump announced on Thursday that he would be withholding federal funding to sanctuary cities, referring to them as a national disgrace. The move would impact Democratic-run cities across the nation, including Seattle, Chicago, Denver, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and others.

"No more Sanctuary Cities! They protect the Criminals, not the Victims," the president wrote in a post on Truth Social. "They are disgracing our Country, and are being mocked all over the World. Working on papers to withhold all Federal Funding for any City or State that allows these Death Traps to exist!!!"

 

Sanctuary cities usually have laws that prohibit local and state law enforcement from assisting federal law enforcement with immigration enforcement efforts. The jurisdictions have been considered highly controversial, particularly because some laws prevent local and state law enforcement from working with ICE to apprehend illegal immigrants who have been charged or convicted of violent crimes.
President Trump made it clear during his 2024 presidential campaign that he would eliminate sanctuary cities if elected. Trump did not specify in his post how broadly these cities would be financially impacted. There are roughly 220 sanctuary locales in the United States, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.

During Trump's first term in the White House, the president signed an executive order to withhold federal grants to specific jurisdictions based on their immigration policies. A federal appeals court ruled in 2020 that the Trump administration had the ability to withhold funds from numerous states that restrict law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration officials, overturning a lower court's 2018 decision.

Attorney General Pam Bondi put sanctuary cities on notice immediately upon taking office, ordering the Department of Justice to pause federal funds. Bondi also instructed the DOJ to identify and assess all funding agreements with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that offer assistance to illegal immigrants. The attorney general has since sued several sanctuary jurisdictions for interfering with federal immigration law, including Chicago and New York.

Additionally, numerous sanctuary city mayors were recently called to testify before Congress about their sanctuary laws. On Wednesday, Sheriff Dale Wagner of Adams County in Washington testified in opposition to the laws, claiming that they make communities less safe. Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, a Democrat, recently filed a lawsuit against Sheriff Wagner for assisting ICE in apprehending criminal illegal migrants in defiance of the state's sanctuary statute.

Since taking office in January, President Trump has signed a series of executive orders to crack down on illegal immigration and launched mass deportation operations across the nation. Tom Homan, the president's Border Czar, has heavily criticized sanctuary cities, claiming that they harm American citizens. He vowed to deploy federal authorities to sanctuary cities and remove all criminal illegal immigrants, with or without the help of local law agencies.