The Division of Homeland Safety has launched an inventory of “sanctuary jurisdictions” that features seven cities and 96 counties in Illinois that the Trump administration views as obstructing immigration enforcement because it makes an attempt to extend strain on communities it believes are standing in the way in which of the president’s mass deportations agenda.
Berwyn, Chicago, Evanston, Oak Park, Skokie, St. Joseph and Urbana are all included on the listing.
The division on Thursday printed an inventory of the jurisdictions and mentioned every one will obtain formal notification that the federal government has deemed them noncompliant and in the event that they’re believed to be in violation of any federal felony statutes. The listing was printed on the division’s web site.
“These sanctuary metropolis politicians are endangering People and our regulation enforcement with a view to defend violent felony unlawful aliens,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem mentioned in a press launch.
The Trump administration has repeatedly focused communities, states and jurisdictions that it says aren’t doing sufficient to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement because it seeks to make good on President Donald Trump’s marketing campaign guarantees to take away hundreds of thousands of individuals within the nation illegally.
The listing was compiled utilizing plenty of elements, together with whether or not the cities or localities recognized themselves as sanctuary jurisdictions, how a lot they complied already with federal officers implementing immigration legal guidelines, if that they had restrictions on sharing data with immigration enforcement or had any authorized protections for folks within the nation illegally, in line with the division.
Trump signed an government order on April 28 requiring the secretary of Homeland Safety and the legal professional normal to publish an inventory of states and native jurisdictions that they thought-about to be obstructing federal immigration legal guidelines. The listing is to be recurrently up to date.
Federal departments and companies, working with the Workplace of Administration and Finances, would then be tasked with figuring out federal grants or contracts with these states or native jurisdictions that the federal authorities recognized as “sanctuary jurisdictions” and suspending or terminating the cash, in line with the chief order.
If “sanctuary jurisdictions” are notified and the Trump administration determines that they “stay in defiance,” the legal professional normal and the secretary of Homeland Safety are then empowered to pursue no matter “authorized treatments and enforcement measures” they contemplate essential to make them comply.
There’s no particular or authorized definition of what constitutes a “sanctuary jurisdiction.” The time period is commonly used to seek advice from regulation enforcement companies, states or communities that don’t cooperate with immigration enforcement.
Some cities pushed again after discovering themselves on the listing.
To be clear: by definition, Baltimore is just not a sanctuary metropolis. However we’re a welcoming metropolis. We WILL stay dedicated to defending the rights, dignity, and wellbeing of all of our residents. pic.twitter.com/dX29zr4vha
— Brandon M. Scott (@MayorBMScott) Could 29, 2025
Baltimore’s Mayor Brandon Scott mentioned on X that Baltimore is “not a sanctuary metropolis,” noting that Baltimore doesn’t management the town’s jails. Jails are a key space the place ICE cooperates with native regulation enforcement authorities so it may be notified when immigrants are going to be launched.
However Scott additionally mentioned the town made no apologies for being a “welcoming metropolis” and mentioned it was getting ready for litigation if wanted to guard the town’s immigrant group and the cash it will get from the federal authorities.
“We’re higher due to our immigrant neighbors, and usually are not about to promote them out to this administration,” Scott mentioned.
In a assertion on X, the Las Vegas authorities mentioned they weren’t certain why DHS included it on the listing and that they hoped to “clear up this misunderstanding.” Town mentioned that regulation enforcement and jail services there adjust to federal regulation.
ICE enforces immigration legal guidelines nationwide, however usually seeks state and native assist in alerting federal authorities of immigrants needed for deportation and holding that particular person till federal officers take custody.
A method that the administration seeks to enlist state and native help is by means of 287(g) agreements with native regulation enforcement companies. These agreements permit native regulation enforcement companies to imagine some immigration enforcement duties and enormously increase ICE’s capabilities. The variety of these agreements has skyrocketed in only a matter of months underneath the Trump administration.
ICE has about 6,000 regulation enforcement officers — a quantity that has remained largely static for years — who’re capable of finding, arrest and take away immigrants it’s focusing on. By counting on native regulation enforcement, it could shortly scale up the variety of workers obtainable to assist perform Trump’s mass deportations agenda.
Communities that don’t cooperate with ICE usually say they achieve this as a result of immigrants then really feel safer coming ahead in the event that they’re a witness to or sufferer of a criminal offense. And so they argue that immigration enforcement is a federal activity, and they should focus their restricted {dollars} on preventing crime.
“Sanctuary insurance policies are authorized and make us all safer,” mentioned a coalition of native officers from throughout the nation and a nonprofit referred to as Public Rights Challenge in an announcement Thursday. They mentioned the listing was a concern tactic designed to bully native governments into cooperating with ICE.
The Trump administration has already taken plenty of steps focusing on states and communities that don’t cooperate with ICE — and has met with pushback within the courts. One government order issued by Trump directs the legal professional normal and Homeland Safety secretary to withhold federal cash from sanctuary jurisdictions. One other directs federal companies to make sure that funds to state and native governments don’t “abet so-called ‘sanctuary’ insurance policies that search to protect unlawful aliens from deportation.”
