For Immediate Release // Please Excuse Cross Posting
Monday, June 2, 2025
Contact: Palmira Figueroa, 425-301-2764; pfigueroa@ndlon.org
LOS ANGELES, June 2 – Last week President Trump’s Homeland Security Department posted – then abruptly removed – what it called “a comprehensive list of sanctuary jurisdictions including cities, counties, and states that are deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws and endangering American citizens.”
The list was evidently taken down because it was inaccurate and caused angry pushback from places that don’t consider themselves sanctuaries at all.
Trump’s team of zealots and bumblers keeps getting it wrong, like the time it imprisoned a Georgia teenager because of a mistaken traffic stop – local cops mistook her truck for another truck that made an illegal turn. And, of course, the time it sent Kilmar Abrego Garcia to life in prison in El Salvador by mistake.
The following is a statement from Chris Newman, Legal Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON):
“Even though Democrats are retreating on immigration (while having distracting internecine fights about whether immigration is a distraction etc), President Trump is outright losing his war on sanctuary cities and states. The only question is whether local lawmakers will summon the courage being demonstrated by immigrants across the country by passing more and stronger sanctuaries as a bulwark against Trumpism.
“Sanctuary policies— initially developed as a defense against President Obama’s catastrophic ‘felons not families’ deportation policy— have proven to be the strongest and most durable defense against Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
“The only question now is why more jurisdictions are not moving to replicate and expand upon model policies. We will keep pushing to educate public about benefits of policies, we will defend them in court, and we will keep pushing for more.
“It is clear that the answer to the top-down, bipartisan failure of federal government leadership will come from bottom-up acts of courage and resistance. Only the people save the people. Solo el pueblo salva al pueblo.”
Additional Media Advisory– The governors of Illinois, Minnesota, and New York are expected to testify on June 12, 2025 in a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing.
ICYMI- Police in Kent County, Delaware rescind ICE partnership following a backlash
