The Department of Homeland Security has published a list of hundreds of sanctuary cities it claims are “deliberately and shamefully obstructing” the Trump administration’s deportation plans.
A list of 500 sanctuary jurisdictions includes cities, countries and states across the U.S., was posted to the department’s website Thursday as the administration increases the pressure on communities it believes are standing in the way of President Donald Trump’s mass deportations agenda.
“These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.
“Sanctuary jurisdictions including cities, counties, and states that are deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws endangering American communities,” the department said. “Sanctuary cities protect dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences and put law enforcement in peril.”
But many officials hit back after finding themselves on the list, claiming they’ve been outspoken supporters of the president and his stringent immigration policies.
The list was compiled using a number of factors, including whether the cities or localities identified themselves as sanctuary jurisdictions, how much they complied already with federal officials enforcing immigration laws, if they had restrictions on sharing information with immigration enforcement or had any legal protections for people in the country illegally, according to the department.
Jim Davel, administrator for Shawano County, Wisconsin, said the inclusion of his heavily Republican community must be a clerical error.
“We have no idea how we got on this list whatsoever right at this point,” Davel said. “I think it was just a big mix up, probably some paperwork or something.”
But communities said the list doesn’t appear to make sense. In California’s Orange County, the city of Huntington Beach is on the list even though it has sued the state over its policies that protect immigrants and its City Council supports Trump. But the nearby city of Santa Ana, which has policies to protect members of its sizable immigrant community, is not.
Others were confused about how they ended up on the list but reinforced that they welcomed migrants.
Baltimore’s Mayor Brandon Scott said on X that Baltimore is “not a sanctuary city,” noting that Baltimore does not control the city’s jails. Jails are a key area where ICE cooperates with local law enforcement authorities so it can be notified when immigrants are going to be released.
“But we are a welcoming city,” Scott added. “And we make no apologies for that. We are better because of our immigrant neighbors, and are not about to sell them out to this administration.”
The Las Vegas government said it believed it was included in the list due to a “misunderstanding.”
“The city of Las Vegas has never designated itself as a sanctuary city,” the statement said. “We are not sure why DHS has classified Las Vegas in the manner it has. We hope to have conversations with those at the federal level to clear up this misunderstanding.”
Immigrants’ rights organizations condemned the administration’s action as “unconstitutional and immoral.”
“Labeling sanctuary policies as ‘lawless insurrection’ is not only inflammatory—it is legally baseless and a reckless distortion of the rule of law,” said Jessica Inez Martínez, director of policy and coalition building at New Mexico Immigrant Law Center.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
