Signing an executive order is one thing; enacting it may be another.
President Donald Trump signed an order Wednesday that he said would “crack down on sanctuary cities” by withholding federal grant money.
Sanctuary cities limit assistance to federal authorities that might result in an undocumented immigrant’s deportation. Forty U.S. cities and 364 counties nationwide have established themselves as sanctuary places.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said federal authorities are going to “unapologetically” enforce the law.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order at Homeland Security headquarters in Washington, D.C., Jan. 25, 2017.
“We will strip federal grant money from sanctuary states and cities that harbor illegal immigrants. … The American people are not going to be forced to subsidize this disregard for the law,” Spicer said. Federal grants are U.S. economic aid that come from general revenue and are made to various entities.
But one immigration lawyer says only Congress can cut federal funding to cities in the United States.
“[President Trump] cannot take away funds,” said Paromita Shah, associate director at the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild. She added, however, the president can move grant money around. Grant money funds services such as community centers, health clinics and housing for low-income people.
“I think he is also saying that he can shift funds,” she said. “So if he is threatening to take away funds, there is a distinction between whether he wants to shift how funds are used. And I think we have to watch and see how he does it.”
Shah added that it will be “interesting” to see if the president tries to undo Congressional decisions. If he does, she says, “he will be on shaky grounds.”
Legal status
Another view is that there is no legal definition for a sanctuary city; they are a not a legal entity. This means, according to Mark Shmueli, Washington, D.C.-area immigration lawyer, that the cities are not in violation of federal law and cannot be penalized by the Trump administration.
FILE – Immigrant rights activists chant during a sanctuary city rally held in National City, California, Sept. 30, 2006.
“To cut off all federal funding to the majority of the largest cities and population centers in the United States would be unprecedented, and it would certainly economically destroy those places and harm the economy of the United States,” Shmueli said.
Shmueli said the Trump administration needs legislation for such federal intervention, asserting that this announcement is a clear violation of the 10th Amendment, which protects state’s sovereignty and its municipalities.
Anand Ahuja, a lawyer and co-founder of Indian-Americans for Trump, said that cities should be held accountable.
“If a mayor of a particular city protects illegal immigrants in his or her county or town … the mayor should be liable,” Ahuja said.
“If you look into the history, it was actually under [former President] Bill Clinton in 1996 that illegal-immigration reform was passed that specifically says that local governments are to cooperate with the department of homeland security and immigration and custom enforcement,” he added.
Ahuja noted that while presidents have executive powers, “if you want to make long-lasting law then it has to be passed by the Congress.”
Congressional action
The sanctuary movement began in the 1980s when church congregations across the United States began providing shelter to asylum-seekers fleeing civil war in Central America.
But proponents of tougher immigration laws, like Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, object to sanctuary cities.
“We confer this special privilege on, in many cases, dangerous, violent criminals because they came here illegally,” said Toomey, who has proposed legislation that would strip cities of federal development assistance if they fail to cooperate with federal authorities.
The impact of his bill, called the Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act, would fall mainly on low-income neighborhoods that rely on the federal aid for affordable housing and public services.
Others said if local officials follow the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, then authorities are expected to cooperate with immigration enforcement.
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