U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday targeting “sanctuary cities” that have declined to co-operate with federal efforts to arrest undocumented immigrants.
The order calls for the attorney general and secretary of homeland security to publish a list of cities and states failing to comply with federal immigration laws, warning those that don’t comply could lose federal funding.
Trump has criticized cities and states that limit co-operation with federal immigration enforcement, labelling them “sanctuaries” and blaming them for releasing criminal offenders instead of co-ordinating their transfer to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Last week, a federal judge blocked Trump’s administration from withholding federal funding from more than a dozen so-called sanctuary jurisdictions that have declined to co-operate with Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown.
U.S. officials arrested a Wisconsin judge on Friday and charged her with helping a man in her court briefly evade immigration authorities. The arrest triggered backlash from Democrats and immigrant rights advocates who raised concerns that immigrant victims may not feel safe in courthouses.
Trump border czar Tom Homan defended the arrest, saying that the administration would enforce laws prohibiting harbouring of a person in the United States illegally.
“You will be prosecuted, judge or not,” he said.
White House displays photos of alleged criminals on lawn
Trump also signed a separate executive order Monday requiring commercial truck drivers to be “proficient in English.”
This came as his administration touted the early results of his immigration crackdown, marking 100 days of Trump’s second term by displaying photos of alleged criminal offenders on the White House lawn.
The photos featured 100 people charged or convicted of serious crimes, including murder, rape and fentanyl distribution. Numerous studies show immigrants do not commit crimes at a higher rate than those born in the U.S.
Trump launched an aggressive enforcement campaign after taking office, surging troops to the southern border and pledging to deport millions of immigrants in the United States illegally.
The Republican president, who made immigration a major campaign issue in 2024, said the actions were needed after years of high illegal immigration under his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.
White House officials at a media briefing touted a steep decline in illegal crossings at the border during Trump’s first three months in office — even as concerns have emerged over the due process rights of immigrants and U.S. citizens swept up in the dragnet.
The U.S. Border Patrol arrested 7,200 migrants illegally crossing the border in March, the lowest monthly total since 2000 and down from a peak of 250,000 in December 2023.
“We have the most secure border in the history of this nation and the numbers prove it,” Trump border czar Tom Homan said at the briefing.
Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian entrepreneur, describes what it was like being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after her visa application was denied at a border crossing between Mexico and the U.S.
Enforcement tactics impacting children criticized
Democrats and civil rights advocates have criticized Trump’s heightened enforcement tactics, including the cases of several children who are U.S. citizens but were recently deported with their parents. One of the children had a rare form of cancer, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Homan blamed the parents for putting their children at risk of deportation by remaining in the United States.
“If you choose to have a U.S.-citizen child, knowing you’re in this country illegally, you put yourself in that position,” he said. In his first hundred days in office, Trump has moved to strip legal immigration status from hundreds of thousands of people, increasing the pool of those who can potentially be deported.
While arrests of immigrants in the United States illegally have spiked, deportations remain below last year’s levels under Biden when there were more people illegally crossing the border who could be quickly returned.
Deportations were down in Trump’s first three months in office from 195,000 last year to 130,000 this year, Reuters reported last week. Homan defended the figures and said it was not fair to compare them to Biden-era tallies.
U.S. ICE detention facilities have been over capacity, with some 48,000 in custody as of early April, beyond the funded level of 41,500. Homan said that Texas military base Fort Bliss could be ready “in the very near future” to hold migrant detainees. The Trump administration has already been using the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
