President Trump signed three more executive orders on Monday. These include targeting local jurisdictions that the administration says are not cooperating with aggressive immigration crackdowns.
One order directs Attorney General Pam Bondy and Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noem to publish a list of state and local jurisdictions the Trump administration considers as “sanctuary cities.” It calls for the pursuit of “all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures” against the jurisdiction that continues to oppose the administration's immigration crackdown.
The second order directs the Trump administration to provide legal resources to police officers accused of fraud. We will review and attempt existing detentions regarding law enforcement, such as federal consent. Provide military equipment to local law enforcement agencies. “We are using enforcement measures against local officials that illegally prohibit law enforcement officials from carrying out their duties.
Earlier in the day, White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said the order “will unleash American law enforcement in pursuit of criminals.”
The third executive order seeks to implement existing rules that require professional truck drivers to become proficient in English. This order requires the transportation department to place drivers who cannot speak English “not stopped service.”
“English proficiency” and Trump's orders “should be a safety requirement that is unnegotiable for professional drivers.”
Additionally, one of the orders could prevent undocumented immigrants from acquiring in-state tuition fees for higher education. He instructed federal agencies to ensure that “aliens will provide domestic higher education tuition fees, but not for American citizens out of state.”
The order represents Trump's latest salvo against the so-called sanctuary city. As the president attempts to increase the pace of deportation, his administration is increasingly unhappy with some jurisdictions not detaining immigrants in prisons beyond the date of release, in order to facilitate federal officials to detain them.
Trump's crackdown on immigration has prompted a major protest.
“Let's be clear: Trump puts his anti-immigrant agenda at the heart of his actions,” said Hector Sanchez Barba, president of Mi Familia Vota, a pro-immigration organization. “The inhumane attacks on immigrants against taxpayers, which comply with Trump's laws, are morally rebellious and deeply unpopular with the American people, as just four months later, Trump reached a historically low level of unpopularity with voters.”
The Trump administration has already sued the city of Rochester, New York, where it accused officials of illegally blocking immigration enforcement. And the Department of Justice is indicting Judge Milwaukee on charges of obstructing immigration agents.
Rochester mayor Malik D. Evans and city council president Miguel Melendez issued a joint statement on Friday criticizing the lawsuit.
“To his face, this complaint is not a legal practice but an exercise in political theatres, and the city of Rochester is committed to investing resources in public safety in everyone, not to the fact that it is not a federal government job in immigration enforcement.”
Meanwhile, a federal judge in San Francisco has temporarily blocked the government from enforcing some executive orders that directed the government to withhold funds from cities and counties that do not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
“It's very easy,” Levitt said Monday. “As per the law, respect the law and not interfere with federal immigration officials and law enforcement officials simply trying to remove the threat of public safety from our country's communities.”
The executive order was signed a day before Trump celebrated the 100th day of his second term. The White House plans to have a weekly event that will encourage his actions, starting with the crackdown on immigration.
The White House lawns lined up with mugshot style posters of undocumented immigrants who were arrested and accused of committing a crime Monday morning.
In his first term, Trump targeted so-called sanctuary cities by threatening to withhold federal funds from mayors and governors who failed to comply with his anti-immigration agenda. The administration has stepped up pressure on jurisdictions just three months after Trump's second term.
Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said the Democratic governor and mayor were fighting a “war” against federal law enforcement.
“They don't recognize the advantage of federal law enforcement in order to protect the lives and livelihoods of American citizens over foreign countries,” Miller said.
Miller said these Democratic-led cities allow “illegal foreigners to be free and raped and murdered.”
Even before Trump signed a new executive order on Monday, the Department of Homeland Security said it would review billions of dollars in city and state grants to ensure beneficiaries adhere to Trump's priorities on immigration enforcement and other domestic policies.
For Trump's immigration advisors, the Sanctuary City policy is one of the major hurdles standing on Trump's campaign pledge to record deportation the most in US history. The “Sanctuary Jurisdiction” label applies widely to cities and counties that prevent local prisons from working with federal immigration officials.
Federal immigration and customs enforcement agencies, or ice, prefers to pick up undocumented immigrants from their local prisons, rather than at their home, workplace, or public places. To do so, it requires cooperation from local officials such as the county sheriff. In some cities and counties, this collaboration is either completely blocked or severely restricted.
At a morning press conference, Trump's border emperor Tom Homan said the administration had 139,000 deportations. Those numbers are behind the Biden administration's final year pace.
He said the numbers would be higher, but few people turned back because the border intersection had fallen so significantly.
“Are I happy with that? The numbers are good,” he said. Well, why did they count the removal of the borders? ”
Homan said as of Tuesday the administration could create undocumented immigrants over the age of 14, providing fingerprints to the U.S. government or face criminal prosecution.
