The term applies to largely Democrat-run municipalities that have chosen to cooperate very little, or not at all, with federal authorities – specifically Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials – in matters of providing shelter and services to illegal immigrants … even those who have or are thought to have broken serious laws.
Chad Wolf, the former acting Homeland Security secretary, explained on Washington Watch Friday that by releasing illegal immigrants back into communities after brief interactions with law enforcement, political leaders are putting not only their citizens but also ICE officers at risk.
It’s not surprising that Pam Bondi took quick action against sanctuary cities on her first day as U.S. Attorney General.
“These blue state governors and mayors want to be welcoming, and that’s fine – but all they’re doing is providing sanctuary for criminal aliens,” Wolf told show host Jody Hice.
If an illegal alien commits a crime in a sanctuary jurisdiction, ICE officers – instead of taking the individual into custody in the controlled setting of a local detention center – have to locate the individual in another setting in which the alien is more likely to resist and perhaps be armed.
Once released into the community, the illegals also have the opportunity to “reoffend,” Wolf said. “Now the ICE officer has to go out into those communities. It’s much more dangerous for everyone involved,” he added.
Cash flow stopped
Shortly after being sworn in on Feb. 5, Bondi ordered that jurisdictions refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities will be refused federal funding from her department.
“Unlawful border crossings and illegal migration into the United States have reached record levels, resulting in a substantial and unacceptable threat to our national security and public safety. President Trump has prioritized securing our nation’s borders and enforcing federal immigration laws. The Department of Justice will ensure that, consistent with law, 'sanctuary jurisdictions' do not receive access to federal funds from the Department,” Bondi wrote in her memo to DOJ employees.
The wording suggests sanctuary cities could still receive funds from other federal government sources.
Elon Musk announced Monday morning that his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has just discovered that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) last week sent $59 million to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants.
“Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s Executive Order,” Musk wrote on X. “That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high-end hotels for illegals!”
DOGE will begin efforts to recoup those funds, Musk wrote.
Oh, where to begin
Too many Biden administration policies contributed to the climate of federal defiance that Trump is trying to reverse, Wolf explained. Biden's "catch and release" policy was the chief offender.
“They reintroduced this idea of ‘catch and release’ where they would apprehend individuals who came across the border but then would release them into American communities. They did that on the taxpayer dime. Then they provide NGOs (non-governmental organizations) with the money to facilitate all of this,” Wolf said. “We saw this with record numbers of individuals.”
At the same time, ICE officials saw their resources lessened and their authority weakened. “The [administration] didn’t allow them to do the jobs Congress has told them to do,” Wolf argued.
Bondi’s move against sanctuary cities parallels with Trump’s mass deportation plan. Actual deportation numbers are unclear, but arrests and deportations began almost immediately after Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border and signed an Executive Order enacting his plan following his inauguration on Jan. 20.
Trump has also ordered the construction of a detention camp with 30,000 beds at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.
Wolf says Attorney General Bondi’s response is “absolutely the right move.”
“The United States government gives a lot of money to a lot of these big cities like New York City, like Chicago, Denver, L.A. and others. We provide federal grant funding then those are the same communities that say, ‘not only are we not going to help you actually enforce immigration law, but we're going to put roadblocks up to stop you, to distract you, to obstruct you,” Wolf said.
Bondi’s DOJ last week filed a lawsuit against the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois for allegedly interfering with federal immigration enforcement.
The lawsuit states that Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, both Democrats, have enacted state and local laws that are "designed to and in fact interfere with and discriminate against the Federal Government's enforcement of federal immigration law in violation of the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution,” Fox News reports.
The border crisis and immigration constitute “significant threats to national security and public safety,” the lawsuit states.
Wolf: This is going to work
Wolf believes Bondi’s withholding of federal funds, particularly if other departments and agencies follow suit, will have the desired effect on sanctuary cities. He predicts that once local citizens realize the type of people ICE officers are subtracting from their communities, they will turn on state and local government.
“Every time ICE goes in there and pulls out five sex offenders and someone who's wanted for murder, I think those community members will say, ‘Look, these people should not be in our community. They should be off the streets.’ And that’s what ICE is doing,” he said.
The New York Post reported that on Donald Trump's first full day in office, federal officers swept into sanctuary cities and arrested more than 300 illegal immigrants – including an attempted murderer and a child molester – and held them for detention. The coast-to-coast dragnet, according to the Post, picked up felons in and around Boston, Denver, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle, Miami, and Washington, DC.
