DENVER ‒ The Trump administration is threatening to sue and withhold federal funds from more than 20 “sanctuary” states, cities and counties, because of their lack of cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
“Sanctuary policies impede law enforcement and put American citizens at risk by design,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “The Department of Justice will continue bringing litigation against sanctuary jurisdictions and work closely with the Department of Homeland Security to eradicate these harmful policies around the country.”
Inclusion on the list, which includes Democrat-run California and Colorado, but also Republican-led Vermont, comes with the explicit threat of lawsuits and federal funding halts. And border czar Tom Homan has previously promised to “flood” those jurisdictions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Several federal judges have blocked the administration’s previous efforts to punish some of those jurisdictions, including Chicago and Portland, Oregon.
Earlier this year, the White House published and then almost immediately withdrew a significantly longer list after many communities on the list said they were erroneously included. In many of the jurisdictions included on the new list, local leaders have argued that allowing police to partner with ICE discourages crime victims and witnesses from coming forward regardless of their immigration status.
In announcing the new list, which also includes both New York City and the state of New York, Chicago and San Francisco, the White House highlighted how Louisville, Kentucky, had agreed to end sanctuary policies while facing threat of a lawsuit.
What is a ‘sanctuary jurisdiction’?
There’s no specific legal definition of a sanctuary jurisdiction, but Bondi’s office said it considered things like failure to collaborate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, providing government benefits to undocumented immigrants, or refusing to share immigration information about jail detainees.
Federal officials argue local jurisdictions should at the very least honor what are known as “detainers,” in which people suspected of immigration violations and who are finishing jail sentences or being released back into the community are instead held until ICE agents come collect them.
In a statement, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, a Democrat, said he agreed to participate in the detainer system in return for being taken off the sanctuary city list. City officials said the decision would affect about 100 people annually, and that they hoped agreeing to honor detainers would spare the city more aggressive street-level enforcement of the kind that sparked civil unrest in Los Angeles.
“I believe we will best protect our law-abiding community and our entire city by focusing the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions on the few inmates in our jail who have been arrested for committing crimes and are subject to deportation,” Greenberg said.
Federal courts are currently weighing several lawsuits brought by the Trump administration against jurisdictions on the sanctuary list. A federal judge last month threw out the Trump administration’s sanctuary jurisdiction lawsuit against Chicago and surrounding Cook County.
Which communities have been described as immigrant ‘sanctuaries’?
According to the Department of Justice, the following communities are offering “sanctuary” to immigrants who lack the legal right to be in this country.
United States Attorney General Pam Bondi has said the list could change as cities, counties or states changed policies in the future.
States:
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Illinois
Minnesota
Nevada
New York
Oregon
Rhode Island
Vermont
Washington
Counties:
Baltimore County, MD
Cook County, IL
San Diego County, CA
San Francisco County, CA
Cities:
Albuquerque, NM
Berkeley, CA
Boston, MA
Chicago, IL
Denver, CO
East Lansing, MI
Hoboken, NJ
Jersey City, NJ
Los Angeles, CA
New Orleans, LA
New York City, NY
Newark, NJ
Paterson, NJ
Philadelphia, PA
Portland, OR
Rochester, NY
Seattle, WA
San Francisco City, CA
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is your community an immigrant sanctuary? Trump issues new target list
