WINNING IN THE COURTS The Trump administration is losing the battle against sanctuary on all fronts. Since Trump took office in 2017, dozens of court cases have been resolved in favor of communities that have enacted sanctuary policies. Some highlights include:
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THE SUCCESS OF SANCTUARY UNDER TRUMP Since the beginning of his administration, Donald Trump has had sanctuary cities in the crosshairs. But the president is losing this critical battle in his war on immigrants—now, more than 125 million Americans live in a jurisdiction that has some kind of sanctuary policy limiting involvement in immigration enforcement. Since the beginning of 2017, there has been an explosion of new sanctuary policies enacted across the nation. And courts across the country have consistently sided with communities that refuse to detain immigrants, sending the clear message that these policies are legal. Additionally, efforts to take away federal funding for cities that adopt these sanctuary policies have been resoundingly defeated. Furthermore, recent research from the Center for American Progress shows that sanctuary laws are beneficial to a community’s health— cities and counties with these policies show lower crime rates, higher median household incomes and employment rates, lower poverty, and less reliance on public assistance. These policies are a just, legal, and sensible response to decades of unconstitutional federal pressure for localities to be the vanguard of immigration enforcement in the United States. Cities and counties must continue to resist the Trump administration’s threats against sanctuary policies—the momentum and the law are on our side.
state and federal court decisions ruled against the conscription of local police and sheriffs into immigration enforcement, finding that it was illegal for local law enforcement to arrest or detain people based on ICE detainers and administrative warrants.
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federal court decisions in the nine lawsuits over federal funding sided with sanctuary cities and states against the Trump administration, ruling that adding immigration enforcement conditions to federal grants was illegal.
CITY & COUNTY WINS AT LEAST...
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communities have enacted sanctuary policies since Trump took office.
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states have at least one jurisdiction that enacted a sanctuary policy in just the last two years.
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