Governors and Mayors of Sanctuary Cities Vow to Resist
Millions of Americans are bracing for a high-stakes showdown, as the clash intensifies between President-elect Trump who has vowed to enforce immigration laws and deport illegal migrants, and the leaders of “sanctuary cities” determined to resist his efforts.
When Trump assumes office in January, sanctuary cities and states are expected to be among the first communities targeted by the new administration, with a focus on identifying and deporting criminal elements—estimated at 1.5 million—within the immigrant population.
Sanctuary cities limit their cooperation with immigration authorities in order to protect illegal aliens. Authorities there refuse to provide information about immigration status or honor arrest warrants from the federal government.
Sanctuaries in this country have existed for decades, but they skyrocketed during Trump’s first administration. There are currently 11 Democrat-led states claiming sanctuary status for cities within their borders. Massachusetts alone contains eight.
“These cities are rushing to re-declare themselves sanctuaries for illegal immigrants as they seek to undermine President-elect Trump’s promise of extensive deportations,” writes Fox News.
Incoming ICE Director: First Goal is Deportation of Convicted Criminals
Tom Homan, Trump’s appointee to lead Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), has expressed in multiple interviews that the new White House will prioritize deporting the more than “1.5 million convicted criminal aliens.”
“The president has been very clear, that right out of the gate, we’re going to concentrate on public safety threats and national security threats. And we got plenty of them,” Homan said in a Fox News appearance.
“Because if you look at the stats, you compare the Trump administration to the Biden administration, the removal of criminal aliens has decreased 74% under Biden. We know a lot of criminals came across this border in the last four years. We’ve got a big block of criminal aliens we got to locate and remove from the country,” Homan said.
“Based on immigration court data over the last 10 years, nearly nine out of 10 illegal immigrants simply don’t qualify for asylum,” Homan continued. “What they did is commit asylum fraud to get into this country. That means there has to be a historic deportation operation, because we have no other option.”
People were willing to give sanctuary politicians the benefit of the doubt until the bottom started falling out, he noted. Now the accumulated failure of decades, with spiraling migrant crime and overwhelmed economies have reached disastrous proportions.
Trump intends “to marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals, drug dealers, and human traffickers,” Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told The Associated Press.
Due to sanctuary policies that prevent local authorities from detaining illegal immigrants for pickup by federal deportation officers, Trump’s plans for using local law enforcement could face roadblocks in states led by Democrats.
Leftist governors and mayors are promising to resist deportation efforts, with tactics running the gamut from filing lawsuits against the government to physically blocking ICE agents from carrying out the deportations.
They will have to deal with a very determined new border czar.
“I want to tell these mayors and governors something,” Homan said. “If you don’t agree to remove public safety threats, get out of the way because ICE will do it for you.”
Gov. Newsom Seeking To ‘Trump-Proof’ California
Home to almost two million unauthorized immigrants, California became the nation’s first “sanctuary state” during President-elect Trump’s first term. In 2022, the Golden State spent $22.8 billion providing shelter and other services to illegal aliens.
Despite a massive state budget deficit and sinking approval ratings, California Gov. Newsom refuses to change course; he has upped the ante by announcing his intentions to “Trump-proof” California by protecting its immigrant population through lawsuits and litigation.
Newsom announced last week that he is asking for up to $25 million for “a new litigation fund” to help California’s Department of Justice “defend California from unconstitutional federal overreach.”
“We’re already prepared with a litigation strategy,” CA Attorney General Rob Bonta said in an interview. “We have thought in detail about where and when we can sue the federal government and on what grounds. And we’re working with our partners across the state.”
Other leftist governors, including Massachusetts’ Maura Healey and Illinois’ Jay Pritzker, are also threatening to circumvent Trump’s intentions to deport illegal immigrants. And Democrat mayors like Michelle Wu in Boston, Michael Johnston in Denver and Brandon Johnson in Chicago are vowing opposition as well.
Denver Mayor Johnston: ‘Willing To Go To Jail’
Denver Mayor Johnston greeted Trump’s re-election with a brazen promise to bring out his city’s police in force, to bodily block ICE deportation efforts.
“More than us having the Denver Police Department stationed at the county line to keep [ICE] out, you would have 50,000 Denverites there,” Mayor Johnston boasted on a TV news interview. “You’d have every one of those Highland moms who came out for the migrants. And you do not want to mess with them.”
“What if Trump asks Denver police to participate in immigration enforcement?” the news anchor pressed.
“Absolutely not,” Johnston said. “We won’t do it.” He added that he was prepared to go to jail over the issue.
“He’s declaring his intent to absolutely break the law,” Homan said in a Fox News appearance. “Okay, at least we agree on one thing. He’s willing to go to jail, I’m willing to put him there.”
Behind the bravura, Johnston is dealing with a crime surge in his city and recently admitted that the brutal Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, has gained a foothold in metropolitan Denver. Johnston is also dealing with a severe housing issue as a surge in migrants has caused a spike in housing costs, as well as a budget crisis.
A new study shows Denver has spent $356 million so far to house and feed migrants, of whom 45,000 are illegal. Johnston has proposed spending cuts for his city’s police and fire departments to compensate for the 8 percent of its 2025 budget that is designated for this migrant population.
As polls showed Johnston’s approval ratings take a dive, the mayor has begun to walk back his promises of resistance and soften his rhetoric. Instead of vowing to block all deportation of illegal migrants, he now agrees that illegal migrants who are perpetrators of “violent crime” should “of course be deported” from the country.
How reasonable.
NYC Mayor Adams Shifting Gears
In New York City, which is also suffering the repercussions of sanctuary policies, the situation has so deteriorated that Mayor Eric Adams, who supported sanctuary policies at the beginning of his tenure, seems ready to shift gears.
He recently said he is open to deporting illegal aliens in his city who are charged with crimes, which is a major departure from his previous position of waiting for actual convictions before deporting the offenders.
As further evidence of his position shift, Adams said he is planning to meet with President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming ICE director Tom Homan, to discuss the new administration’s plans for enhanced deportations.
“Mayor Adams is looking for ways to go over the NY City Council’s head to tweak the “sanctuary city” designation to be less rigid,” the NY Post reported.
“The City Council made it clear they don’t want to change their stance” Adams said on a CBS news show. “They stated they’re not willing to change the sanctuary city law. I think they’re wrong. I have my teams looking at my power as executive orders.
“I have to protect the people of this city,” Adams said. “That is my north star.”
NJ Governor Murphy: “We’ll Fight To the Death”
Asked about mass deportations during a recent news conference, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy struck a belligerent note, telling reporters: “We will be very aggressive, both with bullhorn, with legal action, with any other action we deem to be necessary.”
“If it’s contrary to our values, we’ll fight to the death,” he added dramatically.
Murphy’s tough talk marked a complete turnaround from the anti-sanctuary policy he espoused just a year ago.
Asked about a Biden administration proposal that New York City send some of the migrants that arrived in the city to the Atlantic City airport, Murphy told News‘s Eric Landskroner he’s opposed.
“I don’t see any scenario, Eric, where we’re going to be able to take in a program in Atlantic City, or frankly elsewhere in the state,” Murphy said, according to NJ Monitor. “We are already seeing folks here that have probably swelled into Jersey from New York City or from other locations. But you need enormous amount of federal support, resources that go beyond anything we can afford.”
“Putting all else aside,” Murphy added, “I just don’t see it, and I would suspect that that would continue to be the case.”
Observers speculate that Murphy’s “fight to the death” rhetoric today is largely hype. They note that New Jersey, a blue state, saw many of its pivotal counties vote for Trump in the presidential election, with Murphy winning re-election only by a relatively small margin.
Some experts predict that if the Trump administration makes good on its threat to withhold from noncompliant states federal funding for essential services, Murphy would back down.
“Gov. Murphy’s opposition to Trump’s deportation plans puts New Jersey at financial and safety risk,” wrote the Shore News Network. “His stance against Trump’s immigration policies could put NJ communities in a bind as federal funding hangs in the balance.”
Chicago Mayor Johnson Imposing $60 Million Property Tax Hike To Cover Immigrant Services
Beginning August 2022, Chicago has spent $574.5 million to provide illegal foreign nationals there with food, shelter, housing, medical care, education, and more.
This comes at a time when Chicago is facing a $1 billion budget shortfall and is considering a $60 million property tax increase to help make up the difference.
Chicago’s legal residents have watched as its city government welcomed more illegal aliens and lavished the city’s resources on them. When those resources were spent, migrants were seen sleeping on the floors of the city’s police stations, O’Hare International airport, and other public places.
“Mayor Brandon Johnson’s prioritization of illegal aliens over legal residents has eroded his support base,” an article in Chronicles asserted. It has turned city council meetings into combative free-for-alls where Chicago citizens approach the podium and, one after another, blast the city administration.
“At a meeting on Dec. 2, one Chicagoan after another came to the microphone to slam Johnson for ignoring their needs in favor of foreign nationals there illegally,” the article reported. “One thing that Chicago people know very well is how to spot a scam, and the scam has been exposed,” said one resident.
Another demanded an audit of city spending and predicted Johnson would be convicted and sent to prison.
The article said the speakers appeared to be working-class people, all African-American, who have been the foundation of the Democratic Party voting bloc in Chicago for more than half a century.
Massachusetts Migrant Crisis Costing More than $1Billion Annually
Despite what some call a “migrant crisis” facing the state, which is costing more than $1 billion annually, Democratic Gov. Healey has insisted that Massachusetts state police would ‘absolutely not’ help the Trump administration’s planned deportations.
Healey has seen her state lose significant numbers of residents and her approval ratings drop amid anger over exorbitant housing costs and immigration, yet she has not relented.
In Boston, a sanctuary city, police are banned from holding an illegal immigrant solely on the basis of a detainer from ICE. They are also not allowed to inform ICE when an illegal immigrant is being released from jail, reports Immigration Enforcement Law Institute.
For example, ICE announced earlier this week it had to track down Julio Esteban Batista-Castillo, 24, an illegal immigrant who had been arraigned “on multiple assault and battery charges, kidnapping, malicious destruction of property, breaking and entering and home invasion.”
“Batista has been accused of very serious crimes, including assault and battery involving strangulation and a firearm,” said Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia Hyde, quoted in New Hampshire Journal. “So, we lodged an immigration detainer against him — a simple request for law enforcement officers to hold him in custody for a short time so our officers could arrest him in a safe, controlled setting.”
“Unfortunately, the detainer was not honored, putting everyone in the community and our officers at risk.”
Last month, ERO Boston released a press statement announcing three separate arrests of illegal immigrants charged with or convicted of violent crimes.
In the first instance, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala was arrested on a charge of assault and battery against a minor in Great Barrington, Mass. In another case, an illegal from Colombia was charged with child assault in Pittsfield.
A third arrest took place in the city of Methuen; the illegal immigrant had been convicted of violent assault against a female minor in Brazil and sentenced to 14 years in prison.
These disturbing accounts of migrant criminals being sought for violent crimes haven’t stopped Massachusetts Democrats from embracing sanctuary policies and announcing their opposition to deportation of criminal elements.
**
These “leaders” of sanctuary cities and states have several things in common, notes a Fox News op-ed. “They are losing residents, local crime is increasing and the costs of housing and caring for illegal migrants are collapsing their budgets.”
In addition, their approval ratings are sinking, the article said, adding that “Trump gained ground this year in every single one of their jurisdictions.”
If Democrat officials continue to allow migrants in the country illegally and put them ahead of their own citizens, they may get booted themselves, the article noted. “Donald Trump is offering them a lifeline; they should grab it.”
*****
How Trump Might Persuade Sanctuary States To Comply With His Immigration Policies
Cities like Denver and states like New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and California are spending fortunes caring for the estimated ten million people who have entered the U.S. illegally under the Biden Administration.
Tax hikes and the cutting of essential services are used to balance these cities’ swollen budgets. These policies are sparking outrage among many Americans, as their once-great communities have fallen prey to overcrowding, crime, and impaired economies.
But this hasn’t deterred their Democratic mayors and governors from touting their cities and states as “sanctuary” sites.
Newly appointed ICE Director Tom Homan warned Democratic officials in sanctuary cities and states that they could be prosecuted if they impede deportation efforts.
But the Trump administration holds another ace card; it could force an end to California’s sanctuary status through less combative, but possibly more effective means.
“Congress can sometimes shape state policies with money,” California Assemblyman Bill Essayli explained to the Washington Examiner. “That’s how they use highway funds to basically set the speed limit nationwide. They say, ‘You’re not getting highway dollars unless your speed limits are X.’
“They nationalized the drinking age at 21, they did that using highway transportation funds. So, Congress could certainly withhold federal funds and say, ‘Look, you’re not going to get these tax dollars unless you revoke your sanctuary state laws,’ because Congress doesn’t have to give the states any money.”
Despite California’s strong liberal mindset, cutting off of federal dollars would quickly bring it to its knees, suggests the article.
“There’s a specific amount of money the states get for healthcare and every other issue. The state gets billions of dollars from the federal government. So, I don’t know how long California could survive if its federal funds were cut off, and it’s a very powerful tool,” Assemblyman Essayli told the paper.
“I mean, we’re already facing budget shortfalls. I don’t believe the state can operate without federal dollars.”
Whether or not Trump decides to implement these financial “persuasions,” the assemblyman predicted that Trump would launch “wide operations within these blue cities to find and arrest the criminal illegal aliens, with or without the help of the local officials.”
