President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday instructing the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security to create a list of all sanctuary cities failing to adhere to federal immigration laws, providing them a chance to abandon their sanctuary status.
The order comes as Trump seeks to speed up deportations, following through on a key promise he made on the campaign trail during his third bid for president.
But so-called “sanctuary cities,” or jurisdictions that limit the ability of local agencies to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, have restricted his ability to do so.
“It’s quite simple: 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,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday. “The American public don’t want illegal alien criminals in their communities. They made that quite clear on November 5, and this administration is determined to enforce our nation’s immigration laws.”
Specifically, the executive order will notify sanctuary cities of their status and allow them to drop the sanctuary title — or risk losing federal funding. Additionally, it instructs Attorney General Pam Bondi and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to “pursue all legal remedies” to push sanctuary cities into compliance with federal law, according to a Monday White House fact sheet shared with Fox News Digital.
Bondi and Noem are also instructed to establish proper channels ensuring that those in sanctuary cities do not receive federal public benefits.
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Some of the country’s largest cities have some sort of sanctuary law on the books aimed at protecting their illegal immigrant residents, including Chicago, New York City, Boston and Los Angeles, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. Some states have even gone on to pass their own sanctuary laws, including California, Oregon, Washington and Illinois.
The jurisdictions have faced controversy as Trump has accelerated his deportation efforts, especially in the wake of multiple high-profile crimes that have been allegedly committed by illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities.
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Even so, the executive order comes days after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from restricting federal funds for sanctuary cities violates the Constitution’s separation of powers principles and the Spending Clause, in addition to the Fifth and 10th Amendments.
The tension between the federal government and the jurisdictions has increased in recent weeks, including at a House Committee on Oversight and Government hearing in March, where members of Congress grilled the mayors of four prominent sanctuary cities.
“These reckless policies in Democrat-run cities and states across our nation have led to too many preventable tragedies,” House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said ahead of the hearing. “They also endanger ICE agents who are forced to take more difficult enforcement actions in jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.”
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Trump, a longtime critic of sanctuary jurisdictions, hinted earlier in an April 10 social media post that such an executive action might be in the works.
“No more Sanctuary Cities! They protect the Criminals, not the Victims,” Trump said on April 10 in a Truth Social post.
“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,” Trump said.
The Trump administration has signed more than 140 executive orders during Trump’s first 100 days in office — an increase from the 33 he signed during the first 100 days of his first term.
Fox News’ Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.