Let’s Defend Sanctuary Policies and Throw a Wrench Into the Deportation Machine

On Inauguration Day, Donald Trump issued a slew of anti-immigrant executive orders designed to spread fear and chaos. One such executive order directed the U.S. attorney general to pursue civil and criminal action to the “maximum extent of the law” against sanctuary jurisdictions.

While no sanctuary policy looks the same, sanctuary jurisdictions generally limit cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Local communities can refuse to participate in deportations that tear apart immigrant communities and families, who are our neighbors, our friends and our loved ones. Some prohibit local law enforcement from asking about immigration status or decline to share information with ICE. Examples of sanctuary jurisdictions include states like Oregon, Illinois and Maryland.

After Trump issued this executive order, the Department of Justice subsequently ordered U.S. attorneys to investigate and prosecute local elected officials in sanctuary jurisdictions that are refusing to let local resources and law enforcement be used to carry out deportations.

Threats against sanctuary jurisdictions are not new. During his first administration, Trump threatened to take away funding and prosecute local officials in sanctuary cities, and even sued to overturn sanctuary protections in states like California. But he failed.

Since inauguration, 13 state attorneys general issued a joint statement affirming that they will continue to defend their local sanctuary policies. Four grassroots organizations in Chicago sued to stop the Trump administration’s plans to target Chicago for ICE raids. As we look ahead to the next four years, it is critical that local officials and communities hold the line to protect sanctuary policy and defend immigrant communities rather than give into the administration’s fear and intimidation.

Trump continues to go after sanctuary policies because they have been effective at preventing deportations. Considering that there are about 6,000 deportation officers and nearly 800,000 local law enforcement officers (including police and sheriffs) in the U.S., disentangling local law enforcement from deportations is a powerful tool to disrupt ICE’s ability to target, arrest, detain and deport immigrant community members. Especially as the Trump administration moves unscrupulously to deputize federal law enforcement agents to target immigrants for deportation, it is imperative that local communities refuse to help carry out deportations.

While immigrant communities have been inundated with threats of mass immigration raids, detention and deportation, hundreds of communities across the country have sanctuary policies that restrict or end cooperation with ICE.

But fear and isolation are at the core of Trump’s agenda. The Department of Justice’s latest threats to launch investigations and potentially take legal action against sanctuary jurisdictions aim to coerce local communities to participate in deportations that will tear apart families and communities. Intimidating local elected officials with prosecution is part of a larger divide and conquer strategy intended to further isolate immigrant communities.

Now is the time not only to hold the line and defend existing sanctuary policies, but to go even further to implement policies that can throw a wrench into the deportation machine. Localities can expand existing protections to all immigrants without excluding people who have had contact with the criminal legal system; prohibit data sharing; extend safeguards in places like hospitals, schools and courthouses; and refuse to contract with ICE to establish immigration detention centers in their communities.

For example, the city of Evanston, Illinois, a suburb just north of Chicago, recently strengthened its Welcoming City Ordinance to restrict the city’s data sharing not only with ICE, but also with third parties that could share their data with ICE. New Jersey is looking to strengthen existing sanctuary protections while Maryland plans to introduce legislation to terminate 287(g) agreements that deputize local law enforcement to act as deportation agents. Regardless of the outcomes of these sanctuary policy fights, communities continue to organize, whether it is forming a neighborhood ICE watch, building rapid response networks, practicing mutual aid or working to shut down detention centers.

Intimidating local elected officials with prosecution is part of a larger divide and conquer strategy intended to further isolate immigrant communities.

Stopping deportations and protecting sanctuary policies will also require all of us to disrupt the false “crime” narrative that fuels attacks on immigrants and people of color, and is focused on dehumanizing and scapegoating immigrants rather than offering real solutions to address important issues like affordable housing and health care. Contact with local law enforcement and the criminal legal system remains a main pipeline funneling people into detention and deportation. It is no coincidence that the U.S. boasts both the largest prison system and the largest deportation system in the world: The immigration system compounds and replicates the disproportionate targeting of Black and Brown people by law enforcement.

Last week, Congress passed the Laken Riley Act with bipartisan support. This law not only expands mandatory detention for the first time in decades, but also gives anti-immigrant state attorneys general power to sue to potentially target, arrest, detain and deport people, and to ban visas from entire countries like China and India. Many Democrats voted for this legislation under the guise of public safety; in reality, it exploits a tragedy to target even more people for detention and deportation by requiring people to be detained based on an arrest or charge.

The Laken Riley Act’s passage makes clear that recognizing mass deportation and mass incarceration as interconnected struggles will be essential as we defend sanctuary policies and combat harmful criminalizing narratives about immigrants. Trump will continue to expand the definition of “criminal” to advance his agenda, both by punishing immigrants who have served time and by threatening to take away immigrant status and protections to make more people “deportable.” We see this clearly in his executive order which strives to end birthright citizenship, a right guaranteed by the 14th Amendment after the U.S. Civil War to protect citizenship for formerly enslaved Black people, and affirmed in the landmark Supreme Court decision United States v. Wong Kim Ark. While the executive order has already been blocked temporarily by a federal court judge who called it “blatantly unconstitutional,” the threat of an expanding definition of who is “deportable” remains.

Migration itself has been increasingly criminalized under both Democratic and Republican administrations through a series of border restrictions, gutting of asylum policies and prosecution of migrants. For the last four years under the Biden administration, people seeking asylum and people newly migrating to the U.S. have been demonized and cast as “criminals” and therefore deportable, leading to harsher border policies that then translated to harsher immigration enforcement policies within the U.S.

Any policy that chips away at the cruel deportation machine, including sanctuary policies and efforts to shut down detention, is worth fighting for. All people — including currently and formerly incarcerated people — have inherent dignity and humanity.

When we strengthen sanctuary policies, we protect immigrants like Aylaliya “Liyah” Birru, an incredible anti-domestic violence advocate and Black immigrant leader from Ethiopia who continues to face the threat of deportation. As a domestic violence survivor, Birru was prosecuted and incarcerated for defending herself against her abusive husband. When she was released from state prison, she was immediately transferred to immigration detention.

Alongside Birru, the #FreeLiyah campaign passed a local county resolution to support her freedom, lobbied elected officials to submit support letters on her behalf, hosted teach-ins and letter writing events, and garnered support from over 70 community organizations. After a year and a half in detention, Birru was granted bond and freed from immigration detention in May 2020. When granting bond, the immigration judge noted that Birru had an “effective marketing campaign,” referring to the participatory defense campaign that collected nearly 640,000 signatures demanding her freedom.

Almost five years later, Birru still lives under the threat of deportation, and she is seeking a gubernatorial pardon to circumvent it. Since her release, Birru continues to advocate for stronger sanctuary policies so that no one else will have to experience what she endured. The violence and trauma of deportations never affects just one person, but ripples out through the entire community: All deportations cause immense suffering and harm. But what can also ripple out is the transformative power of solidarity and collective action that Birru and communities across the country embody and practice every day.

A bully will hit you and then tell you that you made them hit you. Local elected officials and communities must not give in to Trump’s bullying and obey in advance, which will only set a dangerous precedent and groundwork for targeting and persecution of organizers, lawyers, advocates, and others working to protect immigrant communities. Every person is worthy of dignity and respect, no matter where they were born. Building a sanctuary where everyone can be safe from police violence, whether from the local police or from ICE, will require all of us to act. Now is the time to be courageous and bold. Collectively, whether you are an elected official or a community member, we must do everything in our power to defend immigrant communities rather than give in to fear and intimidation.