Trump administration vows to ‘come after’ sanctuary states and cities, despite court setbacks

Federal immigration officers helped by Rochester, N.Y., police arrest men from Guatemala after a March traffic stop. The Trump administration has threatened the city over its sanctuary policies. City officials say some officers violated the policy by assisting in the arrests. (Photo courtesy of City of Rochester)

The Trump administration is once again pressuring liberal cities and states to cooperate with deportation efforts, despite previous setbacks in court.

Attorney General Pam Bondi sent letters last week telling sanctuary states, cities and counties that “you better be abiding by our federal policies and with our federal law enforcement, because if you aren’t, we’re going to come after you,” she said in a Fox News interview. She demanded the areas answer her by Tuesday.

Cities and states with so-called sanctuary policies generally refuse to assist with immigration raids or accede to requests for local jails to hold prisoners for deportation. Those that responded to Stateline’s questions about the letters said they were not inclined to change their positions about cooperation with immigration authorities.

“It’s the tactic of a bully. And the only way to deal with a bully is to let them know that they’re not going to intimidate you,” Rhode Island Democratic Attorney General Peter Neronha said in a statement.

The Trump administration is attempting to force more cooperation with immigration arrests. But it suffered a serious court reversal on July 25, when a federal judge dismissed a sanctuary policies case against Illinois, Chicago and Cook County.

The state and local policies reflect a “decision to not participate in enforcing civil immigration law — a decision protected by the Tenth Amendment,” Judge Lindsay Jenkins wrote in an order now under appeal.

Bondi’s letters follow the Justice Department’s Aug. 5 release of a list of sanctuary jurisdictions including 12 states, the District of Columbia, four counties and 18 cities. That’s fewer jurisdictions than the 14 states and almost 500 counties and cities that appeared on an earlier list, which the agency withdrew after criticism that it included conservative counties that were fully cooperating with immigration enforcement.

The states on the new list are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington state. The list also includes some counties and cities in those states as well as in Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New Mexico.

Other federal courts have issued injunctions to at least temporarily stop Trump administration from withholding unrelated federal funding from governments that don’t cooperate on immigration. Cities, counties and states have filed lawsuits challenging Trump’s executive orders targeting sanctuary policies, including a February order that federal payments to states and localities must not “by design or effect, facilitate the subsidization or promotion of illegal immigration, or abet so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation.”

“The executive orders are directing agencies to basically take a maximalist approach to putting pressure on local governments to cooperate with immigration [enforcement], even though they’re not required to do so by federal law,” said Jonathan Miller, one of the attorneys working on the California case for the Public Rights Project, a California-based group promoting civil rights protections for states and cities.

One city on the administration’s list was Rochester, New York, which disciplined some police officers for helping federal agents make a March arrest in the city. The city already faces a lawsuit brought by the Trump administration that prominently mentions the arrest of three men from Guatemala; one of whom has since pleaded guilty to re-entering the United States after a previous deportation.

A spokesperson for the city, Barbara Pierce, said in a statement to The Guardian that, “Nothing in Attorney General Bondi’s letter is new and none of it has legal merit.”

“The letter reiterates many of the frivolous arguments that the federal government has already made in its pending suit against the city of Rochester,” she added. “These same arguments were levied against the city of Chicago and were dismissed by the federal district court for the eastern district of Illinois nearly a month ago.”

Ally Sullivan, a spokesperson for Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, said in a statement that Colorado “is not a sanctuary state. The Governor continues to be frustrated by this mistaken and incorrect label.” In a televised interview earlier this year, Polis pointed out that Colorado fully cooperates with federal authorities on criminal matters. Immigration, he said, is a civil matter.

“In Colorado, we are improving public safety, apprehending dangerous criminals, cooperating with federal law enforcement on criminal investigations, and keeping our communities safe,” Sullivan said.

Nevertheless, Colorado faces a federal lawsuit brought by the administration over its alleged sanctuary policies. Polis signed a measure in May that limits local law enforcement’s communication with federal immigration authorities and restricts where federal authorities can operate within schools, child care facilities, hospitals and libraries without a judicial warrant.

Connecticut Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont in a statement said the state’s Trust Act, which the Trump administration has targeted as a sanctuary policy, was passed with bipartisan support and helps ensure local police concentrate on serious crimes. The Trust Act, passed in 2013 and expanded in 2019, limits information sharing and compliance with requests to detain immigrants for federal immigration authorities.

“Nothing about this makes Connecticut a sanctuary in any legal or practical sense — it makes our state one that upholds the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and prioritizes the safety and well-being of our communities,” Lamont said.

Stateline reporter Tim Henderson can be reached at [email protected].