Trump Signs Executive Orders Targeting Sanctuary Cities

President Trump escalated his showdown with Democratic-led states and cities over immigration enforcement on Monday, signing executive orders aimed at "unleashing America's law enforcement to pursue criminals" and directing federal agencies to publish a list of "sanctuary cities" that do not cooperate with immigration agents.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described the sanctuary city executive order as "focused on protecting American communities from criminal aliens." The order accuses local and state officials who obstruct federal immigration laws of engaging in “a lawless insurrection against the supremacy of Federal law and the Federal Government's obligation to defend the territorial sovereignty of the United States.”

Cities and states that find themselves on the Trump administration's list of sanctuary jurisdictions could face a withdrawal of federal funding, as well as criminal and civil rights lawsuits, if they continue to resist Trump's immigration agenda. They could even find themselves charged with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

The order instructs Attorney General Pam Bondi, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, to "take appropriate action against" cities and states "favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens that are unlawful, preempted by Federal law." This could also target 24 states, including California, and D.C. that provide some immigrants lower in-state tuition rates at public universities than out-of-state U.S. citizens.

Leavitt said the president's goal is to "simply enforce our nation's immigration laws" and that cities and states should “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.”

The move is part of Trump's focus on immigration, a key platform of his 2024 election campaign. The White House erected a line of placards around its lawn featuring mug shots of 100 people taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with signs reading "ARRESTED" above a photograph and a list of the crimes they had allegedly committed.

However, the administration is already facing legal roadblocks. A federal judge in California barred the Trump administration from denying or conditioning the use of federal funds to San Francisco and more than a dozen other municipalities that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta signaled California would fight Trump whenever he violated the law, saying "we are completely committed to suing the president whenever we have standing and he's violated the law." Los Angeles City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez dismissed the president's executive orders as "just another scare tactic," saying Trump already tried this and failed because it's unconstitutional.

Charis Kubrin, a criminology professor at UC Irvine, said the Trump administration's approach is misguided, citing research that found California's sanctuary law did not cause an increase in crime and that immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than the native-born population.