President Donald Trump said that he plans to withhold all federal funding to sanctuary cities, a move that would pressure finances from New York to San Francisco.
“No more Sanctuary Cities! They protect the Criminals, not the Victims,” the president said in a post on Truth Social on Thursday. “They are disgracing our Country, and are being mocked all over the World.”
Trump — who has promised to execute the largest mass deportation of undocumented migrants in U.S. history — said he was “working on papers to withhold all Federal Funding for any City or State that allows these Death Traps to exist!!!”
Since he assumed office in January, Trump has used executive orders to force changes at elite universities and law firms. He’s leaned on the federal purse-strings to advance policy like blocking diversity, equity and inclusion practices in schools. The president has long criticized sanctuary cities, which refer to jurisdictions with certain policies like allowing people who entered the U.S. illegally to remain without fear of arrest because of their immigration status.
Those practices, in place in some of the largest U.S. cities, may mean restricting the flow of the information they share with federal officials and declining to require residents to provide their immigration status when accessing public services. The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that 13 states and more than 200 cities and counties have policies that limit compliance with federal immigration enforcement.
If Trump moves ahead with the action, it will likely be challenged in court. His first administration attempted a similar step, which was blocked by federal judges. A separate action moved to block sanctuary cities from accessing a Department of Justice program that funds local law enforcement agencies. That policy was also challenged, though the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the case in 2021 after former President Joe Biden rescinded the action.
“There are many city attorneys and state AGs who are ready to mount legal challenges if the administration goes down this road again,” said Alan Berube, a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings Metro. Trump may be making a calculus that a change in the makeup of the courts could be more favorable this time around, he said.
Budgets Pinched
The federal government provides aid to local governments that help fund city services. A prolonged legal fight would damage the fiscal health of the targeted cities, Michael Pagano, dean emeritus of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois Chicago, said in an email. “In the short term, the impact can be devastating — unless a temporary restraining order is imposed,” he said, noting that he thinks the courts will rebuff the administration again.
Democratic mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York City defended their policies before the House Oversight Committee in March after Republicans cast the jurisdictions as flouting federal laws.
New York City expects to receive $9.7 billion in federal aid in the current fiscal year accounting for roughly 8.3% of the city’s total $116 billion budget. Over 80% of the non emergency-related funding goes to five city agencies, including the Department of Education and the Department of Homeless Services. The money supports the Head Start programs and free school lunch and breakfast for children in the city’s poorest neighborhoods.
A spokesperson for New York Mayor Eric Adams said that while no resident should be afraid to utilize public resources, the city will work with the federal government and review an executive order “if and when” one is filed.
“These prohibitions are not going to break the budgets in the sanctuary cities and states, but they will pinch them,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies. “It will be up to the local and state leaders to determine how to do without, and which services will be affected.”
Preparing for the ‘Worst’
Cities have been bracing for a potential disruption in federal aid as they set their spending plans for the upcoming fiscal year.
“We need to be preparing for the worst in every case,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said in an address outlining her $4.8 billion budget proposal Wednesday. The city receives more than $300 million each year from Washington. “Should we be entering into a more serious economic crisis triggered by this federal administration, it may very well get to the point where we will need to be considering layoffs and hiring freezes,” she said.
Chicago is counting on $2.72 billion in federal grant funding in 2025, making up a key part of the city’s roughly $17 billion budget. Mayor Brandon Johnson is already facing annual deficits of more than $1 billion over the coming two years.
On the West Coast, Seattle reported $207 million in federal fund expenditures in the 2023 fiscal year, according to a city representative. About $50 million of that spending came from one-time funds related to pandemic relief. The city has already joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration to limit the use of local law enforcement in federal immigration enforcement.
“Strong constitutional protections exist that limit the federal government’s ability to coerce cities by conditioning funds,” Callie Craighead, a spokesperson for the city, said Thursday.
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