(The Center Square ) – On his 99th day in office, President Donald Trump issued two executive orders targeting sanctuary jurisdictions.
The first order directs the attorney general and Homeland Security secretary to identify sanctuary jurisdictions that defy or obstruct federal immigration enforcement and are engaging in “a lawless insurrection against the supremacy of Federal law and the Federal Government’s obligation to defend the territorial sovereignty of the United States.”
It directs federal agencies to notify the jurisdictions of their alleged violation of federal immigration and criminal law and identify, suspend and terminate all federal funds previously allocated to them, The Center Square reported.
The order also states that “assisting aliens in violating Federal immigration law could also violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act” and implementing policies that favor illegal foreign nationals over U.S. citizens might be discriminatory and violate Americans’ civil rights.
The order prevents all federal benefits from being spent on illegal foreign nationals living in sanctuary jurisdictions, including through private entities, and targets higher education institutions that provide in-state tuition “to aliens but not to out-of-State American citizens…”
The second order Trump signed, “Strengthening and Unleashing America’s Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens,” directs the attorney general to create a mechanism to provide legal resources and indemnification to local law enforcement officers who are targeted by sanctuary jurisdictions for enforcing the law.
“Safe communities rely on the backbone and heroism of a tough and well-equipped police force,” which the Trump administration is committed to empowering “to firmly police dangerous criminal behavior and protect innocent citizens,” the order states.
“When local leaders demonize law enforcement and impose legal and political handcuffs that make aggressively enforcing the law impossible, crime thrives and innocent citizens and small business owners suffer,” the order states. Under the Biden administration, crime increased in sanctuary jurisdictions run by Democrats nationwide, The Center Square reported.
Trump’s order directs federal agencies to develop best practices at the state and local level “for cities to unleash high-impact local police forces; protect and defend law enforcement officers wrongly accused and abused by state or local officials; and surge resources to officers in need.”
Trump says his administration “will work to ensure that law enforcement officers across America focus on ending crime, not pursuing harmful, illegal race- and sex-based ‘equity’ policies,” referring to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies also implemented in sanctuary jurisdictions.
The result of this policy, Trump says, will create “a law-abiding society in which tenacious law enforcement officers protect the innocent, violations of law are not tolerated, and American communities are safely enjoyed by all their citizens again.”
The administration is creating resources to help law enforcement officers “who unjustly incur expenses and liabilities for actions taken during the performance of their official duties to enforce the law,” including private-sector pro bono assistance, it says.
The order also directs the AG and other agency heads to maximize federal resources to “provide new best practices to state and local law enforcement to aggressively police communities against all crimes; expand access and improve the quality of training available to state and local law enforcement; increase pay and benefits for law enforcement officers; strengthen and expand legal protections for law enforcement officers; seek enhanced sentences for crimes against law enforcement officers; promote investment in the security and capacity of prisons; and increase the investment in and collection, distribution, and uniformity of crime data across jurisdictions.”
The AG and secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security and agency heads are also directed to increase military and national security assets in sanctuary jurisdictions to work with state and local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration and criminal law.
The AG and Secretary of Defense are instructed to report back to the president within 90 days on “how military and national security assets, training, non-lethal capabilities, and personnel” can be effectively used to prevent crime.
The order directs the AG to take legal action against sanctuary jurisdictions, prioritizing “prosecution of any applicable violations of federal criminal law with respect to state and local jurisdictions whose officials … willfully and unlawfully direct the obstruction of criminal law, including by directly and unlawfully prohibiting law enforcement officers from carrying out duties necessary for public safety and law enforcement; or … unlawfully engage in discrimination or civil-rights violations under the guise of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives that restrict law enforcement activity or endanger citizens.”
The Department of Justice is instructed to pursue “all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures to enforce the rights of Americans impacted by crime” committed by illegal foreign nationals. It also directs Homeland Security Task Forces created by Trump’s Jan. 20th order declaring an invasion to advance the objectives of the order.
