Sanctuary Cities Minneapolis, Saint Paul Face Crackdown from Trump

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Several Minnesota cities, including Minneapolis and Saint Paul, may face a crackdown and loss of federal dollars under the Trump Administration as a result of their immigration policy. President Trump is cracking down on the more than 300 sanctuary cities that shield immigrants, signing an executive order Wednesday that would withhold federal funds to those local governments that offer sanctuary to illegal immigrants. He signed the executive order during a ceremony at the Department of Homeland Security.

The order against sanctuary cities was expected to be one part of a series of executive orders on immigration issues that will be unveiled over a couple of days.

Before Trump signed the sanctuary city order, he signed an order formally moving forward with his campaign promise to build a wall on the Mexican border.

"This is border security," Trump said. "We've been talking about this from the beginning. This is going to bring it over the top. We are going to restore the rule of law in the United States.

"A nation without borders is not a nation. Beginning today, the United States of America gets back control of its borders."

The promise to "build a wall" was the most common refrain at Trump's campaign rallies last year. He would ask, "What are we going to do?" and the crowds would respond, "Build a wall." He would then ask, "Who's going to pay for it?" and they would respond, "Mexico."

The order calls for "the immediate construction of a physical wall on the southern border" of the United States. It does not say how the wall will be paid for.

Administration officials have said that the work on the wall could begin and that Mexico would be forced to pay for it down the road, though a mechanism for making that happen has not been spelled out.

"We will be in a form reimbursed by Mexico, which I've always said," Trump told ABC News on Wednesday.

Trump is also expected to impose visa restrictions for people from the Middle East and suspend the program that admits refugees into the United States.

Sanctuary cities and counties are called that because they offer sanctuary to illegal immigrants, refusing to turn them over to federal officials for deportation. Most sanctuary cities and counties have also passed laws preventing employees from even turning over information to immigration officials.

While it is the cities - such as Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, San Francisco, New York - that tend to get the most notice, it is often counties, which usually run the jails, that have real power to protect immigrants.
Sources say that the most likely target of funding would be the various grants given to local governments through the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

The sanctuary cities-related order reinstates an Immigration and Customs Enforcement program known as Secure Communities, under which ICE would target undocumented immigrants.

The order also directs the State Department to take whatever steps necessary to make countries take undocumented immigrants back — including withholding visas to people from that country.
It also directs that federal funds be withheld from cities and counties that don't cooperate with immigration officials.

The order does not specify which funds will be withheld, saying only federal funds will be withheld except those required by law for law enforcement purposes.

Sources say the most likely target of funding would be the various grants given to local governments through the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

The two departments administer billions in grants - many of which go to law enforcement agencies in the more than 300 cities and counties that have declared themselves sanctuary cities.

These range from Homeland Security's Urban Area Security Initiative, which helps cities prepare for acts of terrorism, to the Edward Byrne Grant Program, which was named for a New York City Police Officer killed in the line of duty and provides funding for a range of programs including crime victim assistance, drug patrols, and drug treatment.

Minneapolis has been expecting the Trump administration to act against sanctuary cities. During the campaign, he often vowed that, if elected, he would move to cut funds going to these cities.

In mid-November, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges issued a statement warning Trump on the issue of undocumented immigrants. “I will continue to stand by immigrants in Minneapolis. For years, Minneapolis has codified in ordinance that our police officers will not do the work of the Federal government and ICE regarding immigration status," Hodges said.

"If police officers were to do the work of ICE it would harm our ability to keep people safe and solve crimes. Witnesses and victims of crimes won't come forward if they think our police officers will question or detain them about their immigration status. Our ordinance has helped us solve crime and keep communities safer. If our police were doing the work of ICE, Minneapolis would be less safe for everyone, regardless of immigration status."

Hodges later appeared on the Rachel Maddow show to discuss an ordinance on the books since 2003 that says police officers are "not in the business of enforcing federal."

The Minneapolis Code of Ordinances, title 2, chapter 19 states:

"Public safety officials shall not undertake any law enforcement action for the purpose of detecting the presence of undocumented persons, or to verify immigration status, including but not limited to questioning any person or persons about their immigration status."

On Wednesday, Hodges posted a statement on Facebook condemning Trump's executive actions:

Already he has erased climate change and GLBTQ people from the White House website, had his press secretary lie about the facts of his inauguration, is hunting for a non-existent voter fraud problem, and has threatened the budget of the NEA. If you want more authoritarianism, then: scapegoat, erase, lie, go after voters, and go after artists. This was his centralize-his-authority to-do list, he made no bones about it, and he's busily checking things off of it.

What he didn't count on? Us - our strength and our organizing. Cities - our people and our tenacity. We will make this democracy hard to break. He will have to come through us; he will have to come through me.

One possibility being considered would be to challenge the legality of the executive order in court.

Without making a decision yet, lawmakers in the south metro city of Northfield began considering an ordinance to become a sanctuary city. That was after the Northfield City Council passed a resolution condemning discrimination and pledging not to use city resources for the "purpose of enforcing federal immigration laws."

While the resolution doesn't mention President-elect Donald Trump by name, the bill was similar to the statement made by Hodges.

Like Minneapolis, Northfield has a share of undocumented immigrant residents, according to the Northfield Police Department.

Northfield councillor Jessica Peterson White, who wrote the resolution, says she's concerned with how sanctuary city status would impact Northfield's relationship with federal officials. "I have concerns this would negatively impact our relationship with the federal government in a way that would be disadvantageous," White told Northfield News.

"But I’m also encouraged that Minneapolis and many other municipalities have taken this up successfully."

Colin Miner contributed to this report

Photo via The White House