Dive Brief:
- Several mayors and governors responded with defiance and frustration on Tuesday to Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Aug. 13 letter threatening to rescind federal funding and press criminal charges over “sanctuary” policies.
- A coalition of 21 Democratic state attorneys general on Monday filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to impose immigration enforcement requirements on more than $1 billion in annual U.S. Department of Justice Victims of Crime Act grants.
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U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) on Tuesday introduced the Sanctuary Penalty and Public Protection Act, a bill that would strip all federal funds to “sanctuary” jurisdictions and mandate a public database “of every sanctuary in the U.S.”
Dive Insight:
Last week, Bondi sent a letter to officials in 19 cities, 4 counties and 12 states the DOJ accuses of engaging in “sanctuary policies and practices,” threatening to revoke federal funding and press criminal charges if they don’t identify immediate initiatives they’re taking to “eliminate laws, policies, and practices that impede federal immigration enforcement.” She set a Tuesday deadline for their responses.
There is no official definition of a “sanctuary” jurisdiction, which has become a pejorative term under the Trump administration. The Vera Institute states that sanctuary cities and states limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu responded in an Aug. 19 letter calling the Trump administration’s “false and continuous attacks on American cities” unprecedented.
“On behalf of the people of Boston, and in solidarity with the cities and communities targeted by this federal administration for our refusal to bow down to unconstitutional threats and unlawful coercion, we affirm our support for each other and for our democracy,” Wu’s letter stated.
“Silence in the face of oppression is not an option,” Wu said during a Tuesday press conference.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said on X that “sanctuary city politicians, like Mayor Wu out of Boston, are playing Russian roulette with the American public’s lives.”
“If sanctuary city politicians refuse to enforce the law, DHS will FLOOD THE ZONE with ICE law enforcement to arrest the worst of the worst,” McLaughlin said.
David Sapp, legal affairs secretary for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, pointed to “binding legal precedent” in an Aug. 19 letter to Bondi reaffirming the state’s “values and ongoing commitment to protect Californians,” Newsom’s office stated in a press release. The letter cited a Ninth Circuit ruling in United States v. California in 2019 that federal law could not preempt the California Values Act limiting state and local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Sapp’s letter said Bondi’s threats could be seen as “malicious prosecutions” and requested Bondi confirm by Aug. 26 that the DOJ has “issued internal guidance clarifying that prosecuting or threatening prosecutions against state or local officials for complying with California law, or similar local policies, is improper because controlling case law forecloses any legal basis for such prosecutions.”
In a brief Aug. 19 letter to Bondi on behalf of New York City Mayor Eric Adams that was emailed to Smart Cities Dive, corporate counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant stated: “Our system of federalism recognizes that states and cities need not carry out federal mandates, including federal immigration laws.”
Katie McLoughlin, acting city attorney for the City and County of Denver, stated in an Aug. 19 letter to Bondi that was emailed to Smart Cities Dive that Denver’s “welcoming city ordinance,” enacted in 2017, “complies with applicable federal and state law.” It said the city has “no intention of changing the Ordinance or our practices as we are committed to continuing to comply with the law.”
“Denver is not going to be bullied,” Jordan Fuja, press secretary for Denver Mayor Mike Johnson, said in an emailed statement. “We have always followed the law and will continue fighting to protect the rights of residents, as well as the federal funding they are entitled to as taxpayers.”
Shelby Wieman, press secretary for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, refuted the Trump administration’s “sanctuary state” label.
“The Governor continues to be frustrated by this mistaken and incorrect label and the lack of transparency from the federal administration on this and many other items,” she said in an emailed statement.
Similarly, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek defended Oregon’s state law, enacted in 1987 “for the safety, dignity, and human rights of all Oregonians,” in an Aug. 19 letter to Bondi that was emailed to Smart Cities Dive.
“Oregon's enacted laws are consistent with the Tenth Amendment and anticommandeering rule,” the letter stated.“The state does not take on the additional expense or burden to perform federal immigration enforcement as it is the job of the federal government.”
