WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to cut off federal payments tied to so-called “sanctuary cities,” declaring that states with jurisdictions limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement will be forced to “pay for them” on their own.
In a Truth Social post timestamped 6:52 a.m., Trump wrote: “EFFECTIVE FEBRUARY FIRST, NO MORE PAYMENTS WILL BE MADE BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO STATES FOR THEIR CORRUPT CRIMINAL PROTECTION CENTERS KNOWN AS SANCTUARY CITIES.”
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/115864395969123502
Trump did not specify which funding streams would be affected, how the administration would define a “sanctuary city,” or which states and cities would be targeted, gaps that have helped derail past efforts to impose similar penalties through executive action.
The president’s latest threat follows remarks delivered Tuesday in Detroit, where he previewed the move and framed it as part of a broader crackdown on immigration-related “fraud and crime.”
Trump has tried to tie federal dollars to immigration cooperation before, and those attempts have repeatedly run into court challenges. Earlier efforts, including moves dating back to 2017, were blocked by federal judges who found the administration exceeded its authority.
Sanctuary policies vary widely but generally refer to local limits on cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, especially when it comes to detaining people solely for civil immigration violations. There is no single, universally accepted legal definition.
In an Aug. 5, 2025, DOJ release, the department published a list of jurisdictions it designated as “sanctuary jurisdictions.” The cities on that DOJ list were Albuquerque, New Mexico; Berkeley, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; East Lansing, Michigan; Hoboken, New Jersey; Jersey City, New Jersey; Los Angeles, California; New Orleans, Louisiana; New York City, New York; Newark, New Jersey; Paterson, New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Portland, Oregon; Rochester, New York; Seattle, Washington; and San Francisco, California.
Other major cities commonly described as “sanctuary” in recent legal fights include Los Angeles, Baltimore, Boston, and Chicago.
One widely cited list (Center for Immigration Studies, as summarized by Newsweek) identifies 13 “sanctuary states”: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington.
