A federal judge ruled on Friday that the Trump administration cannot cut funding to 34 cities and counties in response to sanctuary policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
U.S. District Judge William Orrick, who previously issued an order protecting more than a dozen other jurisdictions, extended a preliminary injunction blocking the administration from pulling federal money or attaching immigration-related conditions to its use.
Colorado authorities have suspended several police officers for sharing immigration status information with ICE. This politically driven decision undermines the ability of local cops to work with federal agencies to enforce immigration laws, putting communities at greater risk and sending a troubling message that breaking the law may be tolerated if politically convenient.
Three Mesa County Sheriff’s Department personnel—a pair of deputies and a sergeant—were suspended without pay for breaching Colorado’s sanctuary state law, which bans sharing information with federal immigration authorities. Sheriff Todd Rowell took this disciplinary action after conducting an internal investigation into the circumstances that led to the recent ICE arrest of 19-year-old Utah nursing student Caroline Dias-Goncalves.
Dias-Goncalves, originally from Brazil, was stopped by Deputy Alexander Zwinck on June 5 for allegedly tailgating a semi-truck. After issuing a warning, Zwinck let her go. However, within 20 minutes, ICE agents apprehended her over an expired visa.
It was later revealed that Deputy Zwinck shared details about Dias-Goncalves’ whereabouts and vehicle in a group chat that included ICE officials. Zwinck was assigned to a multi-agency drug task force involving local, state, and federal law enforcement. Following her arrest, Dias-Goncalves was detained by immigration authorities for 15 days before being granted bond.
The Trump administration is suing the city of Los Angeles, alleging that the policies interfere with federal immigration authorities from doing their jobs.
“Sanctuary policies were the driving cause of the violence, chaos, and attacks on law enforcement that Americans recently witnessed in Los Angeles,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News in an exclusive statement.
“Jurisdictions like Los Angeles that flout federal law by prioritizing illegal aliens over American citizens are undermining law enforcement at every level – it ends under President Trump,” Bondi added.
The lawsuit says that the city is discriminating against federal authorities by treating ICE differently than other types of law enforcement.
The Department of Justice argues that the Supremacy Clause in the U.S. Constitution prohibits this, so they are asking a judge to block the enforcement of the policies.
A group of Democratic attorneys general secured a favorable ruling by a federal judge in Rhode Island on June 19 to temporarily block the Trump administration’s plan to withhold transportation grant funding for states that refuse to go along with its immigration polices.
Two days earlier, in the wake of recent anti-immigration riots in Los Angeles rife with looting, destruction of personal property, and physical impediment of immigration officials, Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy said on X: “The @USDOT will NOT fund rogue state actors who refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. And to cities that stand by while rioters destroy transportation infrastructure—don’t expect a red cent from DOT, either. Follow the law, or forfeit the funding.”
His X post was in response to President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post that same day saying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers should “do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.”
“In order to achieve this, we must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside,” the president wrote.
“I want ICE, Border Patrol, and our Great and Patriotic Law Enforcement Officers, to FOCUS on our crime-ridden and deadly Inner Cities, and those places where Sanctuary Cities play such a big role.”
The Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit on May 13 over Duffy’s defunding policy announced in April.
The progressives have had their way for far too long when it comes to illegal immigration. Republicans have tolerated their insistence on harboring illegal aliens and criminals, and the time has finally arrived to stop this violation of the law and provide safety and security for our citizens. Both the Executive Branch and Congress are stepping up to honor the rule of law.
On January 22, several Republican Senators promoted a new bill on the issue:
Today, Senators Ted Budd (R-NC), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Katie Britt (R-AL), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tim Sheehy (R-MT), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), James Lankford (R-OK), and Mike Rounds (R-SD) introduced the Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities Act.
The bill would allow the victims of murders, rapes, and other felonies committed by illegal aliens to sue sanctuary states or cities that failed to honor a detainer request. The legislation also bans certain federal grants to sanctuary jurisdictions. Senator Budd twice led this legislation in the U.S. House in 2019 and 2021.
Both senators Tillis and Budd made powerful statements in support of this bill. Here is Senator Tillis’s statement, in part:
‘I am committed to working with President Trump to end illegal immigration and fight sanctuary cities that prioritize reckless, lawless policies over public safety. It is clear that liberal politicians want to put political ideology ahead of the safety of their constituents. It is time for Congress to step in and hold sanctuary cities accountable.’
The House proposed a similar bill to stop these violations of federal law, initiated by Rep. Chris Langworthy:
Today, Congressman Nick Langworthy (NY-23) introduced the Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act of 2025 to block federal funding for sanctuary jurisdictions that prohibit or restrict local law enforcement from sharing immigration status information or cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts. Sanctuary cities are actively undermining federal immigration enforcement by refusing to cooperate with ICE detainer requests and releasing dangerous criminals back onto our streets. It’s time to hold them accountable.
Additionally, this legislation clarifies legal authority for local and state law enforcement to honor federal immigration detainer requests by deeming officers who comply to be acting as federal agents. It protects law enforcement by shielding officers and jurisdictions from liability when they cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. The bill also encourages compliance with federal immigration law by targeting jurisdictions that defy lawful detainer requests and shield illegal immigrants from removal.
Cities and states are also willing to pay dearly for the cost of allowing illegal aliens in their locations. The cost of feeding and boarding them can be enormous; educating their children, many who don’t speak English, is significant. They are also putting ICE officers in danger by alerting protestors that the officers will be working in their areas.
The conflict surrounding the Trump Administration’s deportation of illegal aliens is driven by a complex web of NGOs and astroturf activist groups, but Democrat politicians continue to play a considerable role in fomenting civil unrest. State leaders were a key element of the BLM riots in 2020, providing a governmental green light for the mobs by exempting them from covid mandates. City officials ensured that rioters and looters were released without charges, cycling them back out onto the streets to wreak havoc day after day. Other Democrat leaders hobbled local law enforcement and prevented them from intervening in the riots.
The pattern seems to be repeating, with Democrats doubling down on their defense of illegal immigration and interfering in ICE operations. The law, once again, is only important to progressives when it works in their favor. When it doesn’t, they ignore it.
This week multiple Democrat governors defended their sanctuary state policies in a hearing on illegal immigration on Capitol Hill. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul testified at the hearing, asserting that the immigration issue was being overblown by the Trump Administration and diminishing concerns over violent migrant crimes.
Tim Walz argued that Trump was using the DHS as his personal “gestapo” and Kathy Hochul called deportations an “assault on American values”.
After seven hours of grueling testimony in an explosive House Oversight Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) called out his Governor, Tim Walz, for disastrous pro-BLM and sanctuary city policies, his statements comparing ICE agents to the Gestapo, and stolen valor claims.
As The Gateway Pundit reported earlier, sparks flew when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Chairman James Comer had a confrontation with far-left Democrat Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost when he disrupted the hearing, demanding the committee subpoena DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. Her crime: being accosted aggressively by another Democratic Senator who was thrown to the ground and arrested.
In Rep. Stauber’s fiery exchange with Tim Walz, the Congressman brought a photo of rioters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, burning a police station during the 2020 George Floyd riots. “It’s a precinct burning down because of your decision! Was this a peaceful protest?” Stauber said as Walz refused to admit the riots in Minneapolis were not peaceful protests.
Stauber told the Governor, “As I watched lawless devestate Los Angeles this past week, I was reminded of your failure to protect Minnesota from similar riots.”
The Congressman further slammed the Governor for refusing to apologize or walk back previous statements he was asked about at least four times throughout the hearing, comparing ICE officers to Nazis and calling them the “Gestapo,” which he refused to do once again in the seventh hour of the nearly eight-hour long hearing.
He then took aim at Minnesota’s record of welcoming and protecting illegal aliens, as a befuddled Walz fumbled answers to Minnesota’s harboring of Al-Shabaab terrorists, child predators, and whether or not the officers who arrested them are Nazi Gestapo. He kept referring to “the tactics of wearing masks,” which is done to protect the agents and officers from foreign enemies, gangsters, and murderers.
“Why did you tell us that they were the Gestapo? You believe that any of the violent illegal immigrants I have mentioned have a right to be in this country?” the Congressman exclaimed. Walz replied disgracefully, “I don’t know what their immigration status was.”
Eventually, after tearing Walz to shreds on his sanctuary state record, the Congressman started his war on Walz’s military service records and accusations of stolen valor against the failed Vice Presidential candidate, asking him, “What weapons did you carry in war?” When Walz began to answer with a lie about the weapons he carried in a war he never fought in, the Congressman cut him off, and Walz began questioning what weapon Stauber, who was a police officer, carried in war.
“Governor, you’re barking down the wrong tree, okay? You lied to the Minnesotans. You said that you carry weapons in war,” Stauber shouted. “Stolen valor! You didn’t carry weapons in war!”
Rep. Elise Stefanik took the sanctuary debate straight to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday, leaving the Democrat struggling for answers over why illegal immigrants were running loose in communities to commit horrific crimes.
Ms. Stefanik ticked off appalling cases, including the rape of a 5-year-old, the rape of a 15-year-old and a sleeping woman lit on fire and burned alive in the subway — all of which were perpetrated by migrants shielded by sanctuary laws, the New York Republican said.
Ms. Hochul said she didn’t recall any of the cases — “I’m not familiar at this moment” — though she denounced the crimes themselves.
“These crimes are horrific,” she said. “In all of these cases, we would work with ICE to remove them.”
The exchange came during a hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee with governors whose states have sanctuary policies.
One of the New York cases involved Raymond Rojas Basilio, an illegal immigrant set free by local authorities after serving a child molestation sentence.
Another involved a migrant accused of sneaking up on the sleeping woman and lighting her afire, killing her.
“ICE was told not to detain this individual, and he burned a woman alive on the subway, in Kathy Hochul’s New York,” Ms. Stefanik said.
As the leftists running Los Angeles fail to get the leftists destroying Los Angeles under control, two Republican lawmakers aim to hold sanctuary governments accountable for impeding federal law enforcement officials from enforcing immigration law.
Reps. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, and Sheri Biggs, R-S.C., on Tuesday introduced the Mobilizing Against Sanctuary Cities Act, which “blocks federal financial assistance for one year to any city or state that refuses to honor ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] detainers.” The legislation also prohibits state and local governments restricting communications with the Department of Homeland Security.
“If any city refuses to comply with the laws of our nation, blatantly works against the Department of Homeland Security, and wastes billions of taxpayer dollars shielding illegal aliens at the risk of American citizens, then they should be cut off from receiving even a penny of federal funding,” Gill said in a joint press release.
A similar Republican-led bill introduced by Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina died in the last session of Congress.
Sanctuary cities, such as Los Angeles, bar local police from helping ICE and other federal law enforcement officials with immigration-related operations. In November, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted to officially designate the nation’s second-largest city a sanctuary city, “prohibiting city resources or personnel from being used to help federal enforcement of immigration laws,” NBC4 Los Angeles reported. The vote came two weeks after President Donald Trump was elected.
“We have been a pro-immigrant city for a number of years, we know that there is a target on our back from this president-elect, and what we are doing here is we are hardening our defenses,” Councilman Bob Blumenfield said at the time, as reported by NBC4. “We are codifying our good policies on protecting immigrants.”
What began as a lawful operation turned into outright insurrection in the so‑called sanctuary city of Los Angeles. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted multiple strikes Friday — targeting a Home Depot, fashion warehouses, clothing outlets in downtown L.A., and a meat‑packing plant in Paramount — arresting deportable illegal aliens, including some with criminal records.
The result? Large crowds descended, blocking lanes, hurling bricks and chunks of concrete, setting trash fires, smearing graffiti on federal buildings, and assaulting federal vehicles.
According to Fox News reporter Bill Melugin:
Federal sources ID some of the criminal illegal alien targets ICE arrested in their LA operation yesterday & today, which sparked violent protests. They include multiple gang members, convicted sex offenders, violent gun offenders, & drug offenders. One has already been deported. They include:
Rolando Veneracion-Enriquez, a national of the Philippines who has prior convictions for sexual penetration with a foreign object, assault with intent to commit rape, and burglary, all in California.
ARMANDO ORDAZ, a Mexican national & known gang member with a convictions for sexual battery, receiving stolen property, and theft in Los Angeles.
VICTOR MENDOZA-AGUILAR, a previously deported Mexican national & known gang member with convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, and possessing drug paraphernalia.
DELFINO AGUILAR MARTINEZ, a Mexican national with a conviction for assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury in LA.
Hellbound and Down 
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