The Executive Order said in part:
This is a lawless insurrection against the supremacy of Federal law and the Federal Government's obligation to defend the territorial sovereignty of the United States. Beyond the intolerable national security risks, such nullification efforts often violate Federal criminal laws, including those prohibiting obstruction of justice (18 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.), unlawfully harboring or hiring illegal aliens (8 U.S.C. 1324), conspiracy against the United States (18 U.S.C. 371), and conspiracy to impede Federal law enforcement (18 U.S.C. 372). Assisting aliens in violating Federal immigration law could also violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (18 U.S.C. 1961 et seq.). Some measures to assist illegal aliens also necessarily violate Federal laws prohibiting discrimination against Americans in favor of illegal aliens and protecting Americans' civil rights.
The order directs Pam Bondi, the attorney general, and Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, to publish a list of state and local jurisdictions that the Trump administration considers “sanctuary cities,” meaning they limit or refuse to cooperate with federal officials’ efforts to arrest illegal aliens. It calls for pursuing “all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures” against jurisdictions that continue to oppose the administration’s immigration crackdown.
The order is a direct warning to those that don't comply that they could lose federal funding.
The move comes just days after a federal judge in San Francisco blocked Trump's effort to cut federal funding to California cities.
That ruling blocked the administration from enforcing the order against various jurisdictions in California that are suing — Monterey County and the cities of Emeryville, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz.
The new Executive Order directs the Department of Justice to identify municipalities that "obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws."
The orders also could hinder undocumented immigrants from getting in-state tuition for higher education. It directed federal agencies to stop the enforcement of state and local laws “that provide in-state higher education tuition to aliens but not to out-of-state American citizens.”
The orders represent Mr. Trump’s latest salvo against so-called sanctuary cities. As the president attempts to increase the pace of deportations, his administration has grown increasingly frustrated that some jurisdictions will not hold migrants who have been issued ICE detainers in jail beyond their release dates to make it easier for federal officials to detain them.
The Trump administration has already sued the city of Rochester, N.Y., accusing officials there of illegally impeding immigration enforcement. And the Justice Department is prosecuting a Milwaukee judge on charges of obstructing immigration agents, reported the New York Times.
Even before Mr. Trump signed the new executive orders on Monday, the Department of Homeland Security said it was reviewing billions of dollars in grants for cities and states to make sure recipients complied with Mr. Trump’s priorities on immigration enforcement and other domestic policies.
For Mr. Trump’s immigration advisers, the sanctuary city policies are one of the primary hurdles standing in their way of making good on Mr. Trump’s campaign pledge to record the most deportations in U.S. history. The label of “sanctuary jurisdiction” applies broadly to cities and counties that block their local jails from cooperating with federal immigration officials.
The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, prefers to pick up criminal illegal aliens from local jails, rather than from their homes, workplaces or out in public. In order to do so, it needs collaboration from local officials, like county sheriffs. In some cities and counties, this collaboration is outright blocked or severely limited.
Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, said Democratic governors and mayors were waging a “war” against federal law enforcement.
“They don’t recognize the supremacy of federal law enforcement to protect the lives and livelihoods of American citizens against a foreign nation,” Mr. Miller said, according to reporting by the New York Times.
Mr. Miller said those Democratic-led cities were allowing “illegal aliens to go free and rape and murder.”
President Trump is right. It is time that cities, counties and states that are in rebellion against the United States are brought to heel and – forced if necessary – to follow our Nation’s immigration laws.
- 2024 Election
- illegal immigration
- immigration policy
- Kristi Noem
- sanctuary cities
- federal funding
- Stephen Miller
- ICE raids
- nullification
- Pam Bondi Attorney General
- deportations
- Tom Homan
