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News > World

Trump to Strip Sanctuary City Funding, Build Border Wall

  • A Cochise County Sheriff officer stands along the border fence between the United States and Mexico near Douglas, Arizona, March 18, 2016.

    A Cochise County Sheriff officer stands along the border fence between the United States and Mexico near Douglas, Arizona, March 18, 2016. | Photo: Reuters

Published 25 January 2017
Opinion

Executive orders were signed Wednesday to militarize the border and crack down on sanctuary cities.

President Donald Trump signed directives Wednesday to begin his war on immigrants.

RELATED:
Sanctuary Cities at Risk Under Trump — but That Won't Stop Them

He ordered the construction of a 2,000-mile wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, a cornerstone of his campaign, and a crackdown on U.S. cities that shield illegal immigrants, proceeding quickly on sweeping and divisive plans to curb immigration and boost national security.

Reiterating campaign promises on immigration, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday the administration will "target illegal immigrants for removal" and "strip federal grant money from sanctuary states and cities that harbor illegal immigrants."

"Building this barrier is more than just a campaign promise. It's a common sense first step to really securing our porous border," said Spicer. "This will stem the flow of drugs, crime, illegal immigration into the United States."

Trump's crackdown on immigration will include hiring 5,000 more U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or ICE, agents, as well as tripling the number of ICE agents used to arrest and deport immigrants.

Slashed funding to "sanctuary cities" is also high on the agenda.

That’s severed funding to nearly 300 cities and counties around the nation that block local law enforcement from targeting undocumented immigrants. The policies range from prohibiting asking questions about legal status, to disregarding ICE requests to keep immigrants in jail until they’re taken into federal custody.

RELATED:
LA and NYC Will Remain Immigrant-Friendly, Say Mayors

Trump will instruct the federal government to look at ways to stop providing certain funds to cities that refuse to comply, Spicer said.

In response to Trump's threats about sanctuary cities during his campaign trail, many cities had renewed their commitment, while new movements sprung across university campuses and restaurants, calling for these places to also be deemed sanctuaries.

In August, Trump announced he would bring back the Bush-era Secure Communities Program, a plan that will lead to increased cooperation between federal and local law enforcement agencies, and has been seen as a "force multiplier" in terms of deportations.

"We will restore the highly successful Secure Communities Program. Good program," Trump said in Phoenix on Aug. 31. "We will expand and revitalize the popular 287(g) partnerships, which will help to identify hundreds of thousands of deportable aliens in local jails that we don't even know about. Both of these programs have been recklessly gutted by this administration. And those were programs that worked."

The Obama administration had ended the program in 2015 and replaced it with a similar enforcement program known as the Priority Enforcement Program.

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