The number of “sanctuary” jurisdictions for illegal immigrants has tripled since President Donald Trump won his first election in 2016, and they are now in all but three states.
In a shocking and extensive new report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, shared Tuesday afternoon with Secrets, the number of sanctuary cities and states has grown from about 300 in 2016 to 1,003.
While most are towns, cities, and counties that have passed legislation to block local law enforcement from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the protection zones also include 17 states and Washington, D.C. Three states, Arkansas, Montana, and West Virginia, have laws banning sanctuaries.
The jurisdictions have been in headlines recently as ICE and Trump have moved to threaten mostly Democratic leaders backing the illegal sanctuaries. In some areas, such as Boston, ICE has purposely entered to round up hundreds of illegal immigrants for deportation to send a message that federal officials don’t care about efforts to block them.
On Tuesday, in Minneapolis, ICE and other federal agencies were met with angry protests.
In designating a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, governments generally ban police from cooperating with ICE or granting its requests to turn over immigrants they hold, generally in jails. ICE officials said seizing detained illegal immigrants in police stations is a much safer and efficient way to get the immigrants wanted for deportation.
2025 Sanctuary Report by web-producers
“It is clear that the proliferation of sanctuary policies is driven by politics, not concern for public safety or interests,” said Julie Kirchner, executive director of FAIR. “In certain deep blue areas of the country, the political establishment is ideologically opposed to just about any form of immigration enforcement — often ignoring the will of the people in those jurisdictions. In many cases, their opposition to immigration enforcement is so extreme that they would rather turn foreign criminals loose onto the streets than turn them over to ICE to be removed from the country, sometimes with tragic results.”
FAIR plans to turn its list over to the Justice Department, which is compiling its own list.
Trump returned to the White House on a promise to close the border left wide open by former President Joe Biden and deport illegal immigrants with criminal records. While his team has succeeded, Trump and deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller had hoped for higher numbers and have recently called on ICE to arrest more.
That’s where the sanctuaries get in the way, since most also won’t even tell ICE when they are releasing illegal immigrants into their communities.
What’s more, Democrats in Washington and liberal judges have interfered with ICE and Trump’s plan.
The public, however, strongly backs the president’s agenda and is dismayed that Democrats are defending the illegal immigrants, even some accused of murder, rape, and kidnapping. A CBS poll recently said the public approves of Trump’s deportation plans by a 12-point margin, 56% to 44%.
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“Since the presidential election in November 2024, many sanctuary jurisdictions have doubled down on their policies. For example, the City of Los Angeles, which previously relied on informal policies, has now enacted formal ordinances that shield illegal aliens from removal proceedings,” the FAIR report said, offering an example.
The report, over 357 pages, documents every example of sanctuaries, right down to individual police stations.
