Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump said Tuesday his administration will halt federal funding to cities and states that have declared themselves sanctuaries for illegal aliens beginning next month, escalating pressure on jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
The president made the remarks during a speech at the Detroit Economic Club on Tuesday.
“Starting Feb. 1, we’re not making any payments to sanctuary cities or states having sanctuary cities because they do everything possible to protect criminals at the expense of American citizens,” President Trump said to applause.
“And it breeds fraud and crime and all of the other problems that come. So, we’re not making any payment to anybody that supports sanctuary cities,” he added.
The Department of Justice has designated 11 states and the District of Columbia, along with three counties and 18 cities, as sanctuary jurisdictions. The designation is based on policies that federal officials say impede enforcement of immigration laws and regulations.
Since returning to the White House last year, President Trump has expanded immigration enforcement efforts, deploying agents from the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection to multiple states and cities, many led by Democratic officials.
President Trump pointed to Minnesota as a recent focus of those efforts, saying federal agents have been sent there amid investigations into illegal immigration and fraud involving members of the state’s Somali community.
“Our ICE operation in Minnesota, for example, is finding hundreds of killers, violent predators and child rapists, some of the worst criminal offenders anywhere in the world,” he said.
“Murderers all over the place. All we want to do is get them out. … But it’s hard to get them because they make it so impossible for you.
“And you wonder, why would they do that? Do they want to live with murderers? Do they want to live with these people that are emptied out from prisons?”
President Trump also said his administration plans to pursue denaturalization and deportation in certain fraud cases. The president further highlighted actions taken by the Small Business Administration, saying it had frozen nearly 7,000 loans in Minnesota tied to suspected fraud.
