(AP) – The United States Department of Justice identified on Tuesday around three dozen states, cities, and counties as sanctuary jurisdictions, two months after the federal government quietly removed a much longer list that included a large number of localities that supported the Trump administration’s strict immigration policies.
The previous list, riddled with typographical errors, was met with backlash across the political spectrum, and several officials said it was unclear why their jurisdictions had been included.
The new announcement does not appear to threaten consequences beyond what the federal government is already pursuing.
The Attorney General, Pamela Bondi, warned in the release that the department “will continue to file lawsuits against sanctuary jurisdictions and will work closely with the Department of Homeland Security to root out these harmful policies nationwide.”
“By design, sanctuary policies impede law enforcement and put American citizens at risk,” she said.
The new list is overwhelmingly made up of Democratic jurisdictions, including states like New York and California, cities like Boston and New York City, and some counties, such as Baltimore County, Maryland, and Cook County, Illinois.
There is no clear definition of sanctuary jurisdictions, but the term generally applies to state and local governments that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
The administration never fully explained the errors in the first announcement, which included hundreds of jurisdictions, including places that had voted overwhelmingly for Trump and at least one that had described itself as a “non-sanctuary city.” The list was posted in late May on the Department of Homeland Security’s website, but within three days was replaced by a “Page not found” error message.
Trump officials have long warned that the federal government would go after jurisdictions that resist the president’s plans for mass deportations. In April, the president signed an executive order requiring the Department of Homeland Security and the attorney general to publish a list of jurisdictions that, in his view, obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
The administration has filed a series of lawsuits against state or local policies that, it says, interfere with immigration enforcement, including those in Los Angeles, New York City, Denver, and Rochester, New York. It sued four cities in New Jersey in May.
By the end of July, an Illinois judge dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit seeking to loosen the limits Chicago imposes on cooperation between federal immigration agents and local police.
The list:
States:
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Illinois
- Minnesota
- Nevada
- New York
- Oregon
- Rhode Island
- Vermont
- Washington
Counties:
- Baltimore County, MD
- Cook County, IL
- San Diego County, CA
- San Francisco County, CA
Cities:
- Albuquerque, NM
- Berkeley, CA
- Boston, MA
- Chicago, IL
- Denver, CO
- East Lansing, MI
- Hoboken, NJ
- Jersey City, NJ
- Los Angeles, CA
- New Orleans, LA
- New York City, NY
- Newark, NJ
- Paterson, NJ
- Philadelphia, PA
- Portland, OR
- Rochester, NY
- Seattle, WA
- San Francisco City, CA
