President Trump directed his administration to publish a list in the next month of states and cities it deems to be “sanctuary jurisdictions” and tell those localities to comply with federal immigration law or risk losing federal funding.
His executive order Monday included few details on how a sanctuary jurisdiction would be defined, beyond having policies that make it harder to enforce immigration law.
Trump also directed the secretary of Homeland Security to make sure undocumented people were not receiving federal benefits in so-called sanctuary jurisdictions. And he directed the attorney general to take legal action against states and localities whose policies favor aliens over U.S. citizens, including states that allow undocumented residents to pay in-state tuition rates rather than higher out-of-state rates.
While seemingly directed at Democratic-led states such as California, which prohibit state and local agencies from using their resources to help with federal immigration enforcement, the order includes language that could create problems for Republican-led states. Courts have blocked earlier attempts by the Trump administration to unilaterally pull funding from states and cities.
Trump threatened to yank federal dollars from so-called sanctuary jurisdictions in an earlier executive order. A California judge last week blocked the administration from doing so, ruling that the executive order violated federal law and the U.S. Constitution.
Twenty-four states allow undocumented residents to pay in-state tuition at at least some public colleges and universities, according to the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, an alliance of college leaders.
That includes Republican-led states such as Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah.
Florida’s Republican-led legislature this year voted to stop letting undocumented students pay in-state tuition, reversing a law enacted 10 years ago under then-Gov. Rick Scott (R).
The Texas Senate is weighing a bill that would likewise end the state’s decades-long policy of letting undocumented residents pay in-state tuition and access state financial aid.