Trump administration targets ‘sanctuary’ cities in latest wave of immigration arrests

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The Trump administration has arrested hundreds of undocumented immigrants in cities that are hostile to the federal government’s deportation crackdown, the latest salvo in a growing battle over sanctuary jurisdictions.

Federal officials said Thursday that “Operation Safe City” specifically targeted some of the fiercest opponents of President Trump’s immigration policies, including New York, Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Washington.

In all, 498 immigrants, including 28 in Baltimore and 14 arrests in the District, were taken into custody in a four-day operation that ended Wednesday, officials said. Just under two-thirds of those arrested had criminal records in the United States.

“We are never going to stop enforcing the laws that we’re authorized and required to do,” said Matthew Albence, an executive associate director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “If we need to go into these locations every week, we will go into these locations every week to remove these public safety threats.”

The arrests were a provocative move by an administration that has attempted to penalize jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal deportation efforts but has met with resistance at every turn. Federal courts have largely blocked Trump’s executive order in January that threatened to strip federal grant money from such cities and towns.

Hundreds of jurisdictions restrict how much their local officials can cooperate with immigration agents. Some limit their access to local jails or refuse to provide federal authorities with information about immigrants arrested for local crimes.

Administration officials say these cities shield criminals from deportation. But advocates for immigrants say police responsibilities do not include enforcing civil immigration laws and warn that doing so makes otherwise law-abiding immigrants less likely to report crimes.

“These raids are simply another attempt by the president and his anti-immigrant chiefs to bully cities into undermining the constitutional protections of all [their] residents, irrespective of their immigration status,” said U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.), chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.