Only two jurisdictions have changed their policies under the Trump administration to allow police and sheriffs to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in making arrests.
Louisville and Nevada took steps to avoid the increase in federal immigration raids that had been taking place in Los Angeles, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Mayor Craig Greenberg, a Democrat, announced Louisville would reinstate a 48-hour hold on immigrant inmates at local jails to allow the Department of Homeland Security to take custody of them.
The Nevada Independent reported in August that Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican, would authorize the state’s National Guard to “temporarily” support ICE.
Other sanctuary jurisdictions, though, are fighting President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal migrants, especially those with criminal histories.
“We will not tolerate ICE agents violating our residents’ constitutional rights, nor will we allow the federal government to disregard our local authority,” said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a Democrat, who announced an executive order barring ICE from using city property.
The Trump administration has sought help in the court system to support ICE and deploy the National Guard to certain cities. It has sued 14 jurisdictions.
A federal judge on Sunday blocked Trump’s plan to send troops to Portland, and leaders in Illinois filed a similar lawsuit Monday to block Trump’s attempt to deploy troops to Chicago.
Nevertheless, the administration continues to launch ICE operations and deploy surge teams in sanctuary cities.
“We’re seeing that the litigation aspect is, on its own, largely not successful,” Spencer Reynolds, a national security analyst at the Brennan Center for Justice, told the Post.
“Overall, I’m sure the government would like to win, but its big picture goal is to get cities and states to go along with immigration requests, and they are taking a broader, more whack-a-mole approach. These actions, taken together, can have an impact through intimidation.”
After a federal judge in July dismissed the Trump administration’s sanctuary lawsuit against Chicago and Illinois, Chicago Democrat Alderman Raymond Lopez criticized the city’s approach.
Lopez said city officials should have amended sanctuary policies to allow local police to alert ICE if illegal migrants were arrested for violent crimes.
“This entire situation is, unfortunately, a travesty of our making,” Lopez told the Post.
He added that Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker “taunted the incoming Trump administration, saying, ‘If you want to go find targets, go find them yourselves.’ Fast-forward to where we are today. Trump is doing exactly what he said he would do. They called our bluff and are coming into our community and rounding up groups of individuals — not just ones who they are targeting, but anyone else who happens to be a noncitizen.”
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