How Big Cities Are Dealing with Sanctuary City Status as Trump’s 2nd Term Approaches

Some of America’s big cities are getting ready for the return of the Trump administration, in particular his promise to crack down on sanctuary cities by cutting off federal funds. But the responses of these cities varies from outright defiance to capitulation. Out in San Francisco, city attorney David Chiu is preparing to fight.

Chiu, 54, is expected to play a prominent role in a courtroom campaign to push back on  Trump if he targets liberal cities such as San Francisco, possibly by trying to withhold federal funds over sanctuary policies he opposes as he seeks to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.

The legal resistance for Democrats such as Chiu may be more difficult than the last time Trump was in office. While Chiu’s predecessor, Dennis Herrera, was broadly successful in his many legal fights against Trump during his first term, experts say the president-elect and his staff have learned from some of their mistakes the last time they held the White House. They will also benefit from having Republican control of both chambers of Congress and a Supreme Court with a conservative supermajority…

“Can the president, through executive action or through regulation without congressional authorization, condition funding based on ICE cooperation?” said Hing, a former San Francisco police commissioner. “That’s where the city attorney is going to have to help us out and argue that you can’t do that.”

Meanwhile in New York City, Mayor Adams has been signaling for months that the city needs to make a change.

Under the laws, city jails and police are largely barred from honoring ICE detainer requests. Exceptions are only made when ICE provides a warrant, and only for individuals convicted of one of about 170 violent or serious crimes or whose names appear on a federal terrorist watch list. A 2014 law also removed an ICE office from Rikers Island…

After a meeting earlier this month with Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan, Adams said in a press conference that he doesn’t want a “safe haven for those who commit repeated violent crimes.” He added, “we have the same desire to go after those who are committing repeated violent acts.”

Adams has also suggested that police should be allowed to cooperate with ICE to help deport unauthorized immigrants accused of crimes, rather than just those who have been convicted. He’s also discussed expanding the list of criminal convictions that would trigger police cooperation with ICE.

You would think that the horrific murder of a woman on a subway train yesterday by an illegal immigrant from Guatemala would impact the public mood in the city, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, Boston just reaffirmed its sanctuary city status in case anyone was wondering.

The City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to reaffirm Boston’s status as a sanctuary city “to protect” immigrants amid President Donald Trump’s vow to carry out mass deportations when he takes office for the second time next month.

The 13-0 vote was to reaffirm the Boston Trust Act, which, per the Council’s approved resolution, was first enacted in 2014, later amended in 2019, and “delineates the distinct roles and responsibilities of the Boston Police Department from those of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), thereby promoting trust between local law enforcement and immigrant communities.”

The law prohibits Boston Police and other city departments from cooperating with ICE when it comes to detaining immigrants on civil warrants, while still allowing for cooperation in criminal matters like human trafficking, child exploitation, drug and weapons trafficking, and cybercrimes, according to the resolution.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey made it clear that despite 8 cities considering themselves sanctuary cities, Massachusetts is not a sanctuary state.

In an end-of-year interview with the Herald ahead of her third year in office, Healey cast blame on the federal government for immigration issues in the Bay State, but said the expected $1 billion tab taxpayers are set to carry in each of the next several years will eventually deflate.

“It’s going to go down,” she said from inside the State House. “This is not a permanent situation, and it certainly is not sustainable, which is why I felt comfortable making the policy decisions that I have made to ratchet down the numbers.”…

“We’re not a sanctuary state,” Healey said. “We have a limited budget, and the emergency shelter system really was meant for Massachusetts families who were experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity and needed a place to go that was temporary.

But an ICE official said so many cities are official sanctuary cities that it hardly matters.

Todd Lyons, a top national official for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE/ERO), said Massachusetts “can do more to remove egregious foreign-born public safety threats from our neighborhoods by simply notifying ERO when they are in custody.”…

He did not mention Healey’s comments directly, but stressed Massachusetts is now home to “so many cities and municipalities” that “openly” support sanctuary policies.

Boston, Somerville, Northampton, Amherst, Cambridge, Concord, Lawrence and Newton are the state’s eight sanctuary cities.

So large portions of Massachusetts will be fighting the state and the federal government to protect migrant criminals. This seems like a very bad idea but you can’t convince voters there no matter what happens.

An El Salvadoran illegal immigrant wanted for allegedly sexually assaulting a child has been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Massachusetts, after a local sheriff’s office ignored a detainer to hold him.

ICE said its Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston arrested 55-year-old Hugo Israel Ruiz on Dec. 17 on felony charges of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14, adding that he remains in custody pending immigration and criminal proceedings.

Why does Boston’s City Council think this is a good idea?