While the left is still ranting about the abuses of ICE, the Department of Justice is moving forward with prosecuting sanctuary cities. It is also incentivizing local governments to help them crack down on illegal aliens. Twenty-seven lawsuits have been filed against more than 20 cities, counties and states since Trump began his second term.
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One strategy to try to stymie the ICE agents’ efforts is illustrated by the City of Philadelphia, where they enacted a new policy that was intended to ban a number of ICE activities.
A U.S. district court judge (appointed by President Trump) said the policy violated the Supremacy Law (meaning, the federal law has priority), over state law, and stopped it through a preliminary injunction.
The new law had prohibited ICE officers from wearing masks, concealing their badges or using unmarked vehicles on the job. The fact that the agents feared for their own lives and their families’ lives, because people were doxxing them, obviously didn’t influence the city’s decision; the city council was more concerned with how the illegal aliens would feel about the appearances of the ICE agents.
Maryland is trying to cause trouble for ICE, too, and has become a prime target for the DOJ. Maryland decided that state and local correctional officers were forbidden to ask a person about his or her immigration status. A person also couldn’t be detained locally without a federal officer providing a warrant or court order. The DOJ is suing, since these efforts are clearly obstructing federal law enforcement.
has been made by 17 local Maryland sheriffs against the state, since the law puts them in “an impossible and unconstitutional position.”
Also, since Sept. 1, the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) at the DOJ requires that all state agencies that receive federal funding for Temporary Assistance of Needy Families (TANF) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) report anyone who is illegally in the U.S. They are acting on the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) which includes:
It is a compelling government interest to remove the incentive for illegal immigration provided by the availability of public benefits,’ and thus requires states receiving federal funds for TANF or SSI to ‘furnish’ DHS ‘with the name and address of, and other identifying information on, any individual who the State knows is unlawfully in the United States.
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Originally the OLC had limited that responsibility to the agencies that administered TANF or SSI; they now include any agency that may become aware of the presence of illegal aliens.
Finally, another layer of enforcement is discouraging the sanctuary city policy. Since Feb. 16, 2026, states have been encouraged to accept 287(g) agreements, a lucrative approach to enlisting the help of local law enforcement to aid ICE agents. Since some agencies (especially smaller ones) claim that they can’t afford to assist in these detentions, these plans should help:
- Reimburse the full salary and benefits of every officer trained to enforce immigration law
- Pay overtime
- Cover startup costs
- Hand over $100,000 per agency for a new vehicle
- Throw in equipment: license plate readers, body armor, fingerprint scanners, Apple AirPods that translate Spanish in real time
- Pay “performance” bonuses based on how many undocumented people the officers find
These are funds that the federal government has allotted to immigration control, so they won’t be shifted from other resources.
Although other types of enforcement are available, the “task force model” has been applied most often: local officers can be deputized by immigration officials to allow them to do such tasks as asking about immigration status or detaining suspects and turning them over to ICE.
Although some states have refused to participate in the 287(g) program (and will probably be sued by the DOJ as a result), the program is hugely successful: over 1,700 partnerships have been formed with 13,800 to 15,800 officers deputized.
These policies will have a substantial impact on the invasion of illegal aliens under the Biden administration. Although some states complain that illegal aliens will be led to distrust law enforcement (and why should that matter), our communities will be so much safer. We will also be validating the rule of law.
It’s well past time to honor our own citizens and rid the country of those who have arrived illegally and taken advantage of our systems.
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Image: NARA and DVIDS Public Domain Archive // public domain