President Donald Trump is ramping up his administration’s aggressive enforcement of federal immigration law, threatening to cut federal funding to states and cities that dare to defy him.

In an address to the Detroit Economic Club on Tuesday, the president pledged to cancel federal payments to “sanctuary” jurisdictions impeding or refusing to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. “Starting February 1, we’re not making any payments to sanctuary cities or states having sanctuary cities because they do everything possible to protect criminals at the expense of American citizens,” Trump announced. “It breeds fraud and crime and all of the other problems that come. So we’re not making any payment to anybody that supports sanctuary.”

Headlines have been dominated for weeks by ICE raids in Minneapolis, where rampant fraud committed by Minnesota’s Somali immigrant population has drawn the attention of the White House. Border Czar and former ICE chief Tom Homan pointed to Minneapolis’s and Minnesota’s “sanctuary” policies as one of the primary reasons ICE enforcement operations were needed there.

“The invasion occurred the last four years, and millions of illegal aliens were illegally released in the United States without proper vetting. That’s why we’re there,” he said in a Tuesday interview. “We’re in Minnesota because, number one, they’re a sanctuary state” and Minneapolis is a “sanctuary city. They’re knowingly releasing public safety threats, illegal aliens, to the streets every day.” He added, “If these governors and mayors will simply let us in their jail, you know, comply with our detainers, we can arrest that criminal public safety threat in the safety and security of a jail, but they’d rather release them in the public, which is unsafe for the public, unsafe for the alien, and certainly unsafe for our agents.”

In comments to The Washington Stand, Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, said, “It makes perfect sense and is good fiscal management to withhold federal funds from sanctuary state and local jurisdictions which defy — and even obstruct — enforcement of federal law.” She continued, “Sanctuary policies endanger communities by ignoring ICE detainers to keep criminal aliens in state/local detention and instead release them back onto the street to commit more crime and fraud. President Trump attempted to end funding for such jurisdictions during his first term, but the Left, of course, sued and ran out the clock to prevent implementation.”

“Now, the billions of dollars of fraud in federal spending programs exposed weekly strengthens President Trump’s hand in ending the funding,” Ries observed. “The Left will again sue as part of its lawfare strategy, an activist federal judge will order the Trump Administration to pay the funds and to do so immediately, and the administration will appeal both the injunction and the merits.”

Jessica Vaughan, Policy Studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), told TWS, “The president has the ability (and, I would argue, the legal responsibility) to withhold certain federal funding from sanctuary jurisdictions,” which she defined as “those state or local governments that violate the section of federal law which says they may not prohibit local officers from communicating with ICE or other immigration agencies about immigration status of individuals, or even other laws, like the ones regulating commercial driver’s licensing, welfare programs, or possibly even voting.” Vaughan emphasized, “There are already laws on the books that require federal grantees to be in compliance with all federal laws.”

While the president may be prevented from withholding all federal funding from “sanctuary” jurisdictions, he can withhold funding that is “relevant to immigration compliance — such as money for policing, small business loans to illegal aliens, transportation funding, and more,” Vaughan observed. “The president can make it very expensive to be a sanctuary jurisdiction, and that has proven to be the most effective way to get them to modify their policies.”

Andrew R. Arthur, CIS resident fellow in Law and Policy, recently warned that the actions of political leaders in Minnesota, namely Governor Tim Walz (D) and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D), go far beyond the typical “sanctuary” jurisdiction standard of not cooperating with ICE and cross into actively threatening and endangering federal agents, encouraging violence against them.

“It’s important to note there’s a (not-so) fine line between states and localities that refuse to cooperate in immigration enforcement efforts and any efforts by elected officials in those states and localities to rile up ‘activist’ mobs to forcibly confront federal officers carrying out their duties,” Arthur observed. “Men aren’t angels, and neither are those who govern them. Perhaps, however, our elected officials could step out of their bullying pulpits long enough to listen to what Lincoln termed ‘the better angels of our nature’ instead of the demons rejoicing in the political fires they are currently stoking.”

Minnesota and Minneapolis are among the “sanctuary” jurisdictions that Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed lawsuits against, in an effort to terminate the policies. However, Minnesota, joined by “sanctuary” state Illinois, recently filed its own lawsuit to block ICE operations from occurring within the state. The dual lawsuits characterized federal law enforcement officers as “occupiers” who are “lawlessly stopping, interrogating, and arresting residents, and attacking them with chemical weapons.”

“Ending sanctuary policies is important to public safety, important to the integrity of immigration laws, and helpful in reducing the cost of welfare, medical, and educational programs for taxpayers,” Vaughan noted. “We know that sanctuary policies result in criminal aliens being freed back into the community, and that they are a magnet for illegal immigration,” she continued. “And now we have seen in Minnesota and Maine that sanctuary policies also breed fraud and corruption in state and local government, as foreign-born fraudsters can get away with fleecing government programs with impunity,” Vaughan said.

So far, investigators have uncovered at least $9 billion in fraud in Minnesota. “The Somalians who stole millions of dollars from taxpayers knew they could get away with it as long as they enjoyed protection from scrutiny and passed on some of their ill-gotten gains to politicians who protected them,” Vaughan added.

The DOJ has published a list of “sanctuary” jurisdictions, naming 12 states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington) and the District of Columbia, four counties (Maryland’s Baltimore County, Illinois’s Cook County, and California’s San Diego and San Francisco Counties), and 18 cities (Albuquerque; Berkeley, California; Boston; Chicago; Denver; East Lansing, Michigan; Hoboken, New Jersey; Jersey City, New Jersey; Los Angeles; New Orleans; New York City; Newark, New Jersey; Paterson, New Jersey; Philadelphia; Portland; Rochester, New York; Seattle; and San Francisco City). The Trump administration’s tactics and the threat of lawsuits successfully pressured Nevada and Baltimore County to rescind their “sanctuary” policies.

However, CIS lists over 200 “sanctuary” cities and counties, last updated on November 20. “These cities, counties, and states have laws, ordinances, regulations, resolutions, policies, or other practices that obstruct immigration enforcement and shield criminals from ICE,” CIS clarifies. These policies can include “refusing to or prohibiting agencies from complying with ICE detainers, imposing unreasonable conditions on detainer acceptance, denying ICE access to interview incarcerated aliens, or otherwise impeding communication or information exchanges between their personnel and federal immigration officers.”

According to the Trump administration’s rapid response team, the president’s deportation agenda has resulted in plummeting housing and rent prices. In 14 of the top 20 metropolitan cities with the highest estimated illegal immigrant populations, listing prices fell year-over-year in December. Areas like Austin, Texas, San Diego, and San Jose, California saw housing price decreases ranging from over 7% to 5.5%. The only three cities listed (Seattle, Chicago, and Philadelphia) to see housing prices rise are “sanctuary” cities.

Ries commented, “Housing and rent prices in relation to illegal immigration [are] simple supply and demand. As the population of illegal aliens decreases, the supply of housing and rental units increase, which decreases their price.” She continued, “Illegal aliens should be prohibited from receiving any benefits downstream from their illegal presence, including housing. This policy would significantly increase self-deportations, increase housing supply, and reduce costs.”

“Because sanctuary policies attract illegal immigration, they put pressure on affordable housing and employment for the most vulnerable Americans (and legal immigrants) who are competing for the same kinds of homes, jobs, and services that illegal aliens are looking for,” Vaughan observed. “If policymakers are concerned about ‘affordability,’ then they should seek to reduce immigration in order to open up more job opportunities and housing stock for struggling Americans.”

In the midst of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is terminating temporary protected status (TPS), a classification intended to temporarily permit immigrants from particularly troubled nations to take refuge in the U.S., for Somali immigrants. “Temporary means temporary,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asserted. “Country conditions in Somalia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law’s requirement for Temporary Protected Status. Allowing Somali nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interests. We are putting Americans first.”

According to a Fox News report, thousands of Somali immigrants currently resident in the U.S. on TPS will be required to leave by March 17. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) confirmed that nearly 2,500 Somali nationals are currently shielded by TPS, and over 1,300 currently have TPS applications pending. TPS was first opened to Somalia in 1991 and has been renewed repeatedly over the last 25 years.