Trump Revives Fight Against Sanctuary Cities

In his second term in office, Donald Trump has revived his fight against sanctuary jurisdictions. For decades, local government agencies across the country have restricted law enforcement officials from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. Trump’s efforts to withhold federal funding have so far been blocked in court, as they were during his first term. Still some cities are downplaying their sanctuary status as the Trump administration continues its crackdown on immigrants and pledges to deport millions of people. We’ll talk about what “sanctuary” means in 2025, what Trump is trying to do, and how communities across California are responding.

Show Highlights

 

Defining Sanctuary Jurisdictions and Laws

 

Sanctuary jurisdictions bar local and state police from functioning as immigration agents, but the exact limits vary. “Local law enforcement can only cooperate with ICE if somebody has been convicted of a very long list of serious and violent crimes,” explains Marisa Lagos, highlighting the strict parameters of California’s Senate Bill 54. 

 

Sergio Olmos underscores the practical effect, on the highways: “The California Highway Patrol is not gonna be assisting immigration agents in carrying out raids or stopping you and asking about your status.”

 

The Role of Local Law Enforcement

 

Local law enforcement is the backbone of any large-scale deportation effort—because, as Nick Miroff says, “ICE does not have the staffing, the infrastructure, and not yet at least the money to carry out the mass deportation campaign that Trump has promised.” 

 

In practice, that means federal agents lean on state and local officers—except in sanctuary jurisdictions like California. 

 

“No police agency in this state is going to be assisting with immigration enforcement,” Olmos says, because SB 54 bars any cooperation with ICE. Still, the law isn’t absolute. A caller named Kelly, who works as an immigration attorney, points out that SB 54 stops routine arrests and holds, but it doesn’t prevent the state prison system from transferring people to ICE upon release—sometimes even for minor offenses.

 

Legal Battles and Court Rulings

 

The Trump administration tried to punish sanctuary jurisdictions by threatening to cut off unrelated federal funding, but the courts have pushed back hard. Judges have ruled that they cannot demand compliance with local immigration policies as a condition for receiving grants. 

 

Trump Administration’s Immigration Agenda

 

Immigration enforcement has become a flagship initiative for the Trump administration, tapping every corner of the federal government. “They’re mobilizing the entire federal government and all federal law enforcement to help in this singular campaign,” Nick Miroff observes.

 

Even the Border Patrol—traditionally focused on U.S. borders—has been sent inland for raids, most notably under the El Centro Sector’s Bakersfield operation. Sector Chief Greg Bovino emphasizes the shift in posture. Every town in America is now a potential border town, he threatens. “It’s game on with the green team—from here to Stockton to Fresno, any place, any time.”

 

Yet Olmos’s investigation paints a starkly different picture of who’s being caught. In Bakersfield, 77 of the 78 people arrested had no criminal or immigration history, revealing a profound gap between the administration’s high-profile rhetoric and the reality on the ground.

 

Public Perception and Political Implications

 

Securing the border may enjoy bipartisan backing, but interior raids provoke widespread unease. Miroff explains that when Americans see masked, armed federal agents storming homes and separating families, the U.S. looks like an authoritarian country; “support for aggressive enforcement tends to quickly erode,” he says

 

Caller Phil underscores what’s missing from the debate. No one is tallying the human costs of deportation against its purported benefits. Without that balance, he argues, these heavy-handed tactics are impossible to justify.

 

Future Legislation and Reforms

The administration’s budget reconciliation bill proposes an unprecedented surge in immigration enforcement funding—“between a hundred and two hundred billion dollars for immigration enforcement writ large,” Nick Miroff reports—complete with “forty-five billion dollars for detention infrastructure” alone. This means more beds, jails, and even camps championed by hard-line policymakers.

 

Lagos points out though that any effort to roll back California’s SB 54 could trigger another legal showdown, since the courts have already weighed in on the state’s sanctuary protections.

 

This content was edited by the Forum production team but was generated with the help of AI.