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Heads up! Here's where ICE will strike next (w/ poll) [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-06-01

Where will ICE conduct its next deportation sweep? Practically anywhere it damn well pleases! Last week, ICE published a list of over 500 cities, counties, and states that DHS calls “sanctuary jurisdictions” that are “endangering Americans” (“Trump administration increases pressure on ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’ with public listing,” AP, May 29):

[DHS] on Thursday published a list of the jurisdictions and said each one will receive formal notification that the government has deemed them noncompliant and if they’re believed to be in violation of any federal criminal statutes. The list was published on the department’s website. “These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press release. The Trump administration has repeatedly targeted communities, states and jurisdictions that it says aren’t doing enough to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement as it seeks to make good on President Donald Trump’s campaign promises to remove millions of people in the country illegally.

I can’t decide whether AP deliberately left in the ambiguity in the last sentence. My inner grammarian says the sentence could be interpreted two ways. “trump promised to remove millions of people who were in the country illegally” is one way. The other is “trump promised to illegally remove millions of people.” Of course, both can be true!

The list grew out of an executive order that trump issued last month, threatening punitive measures that may (IANAL) get challenged in court (same link):

Trump signed an executive order on April 28 requiring the secretary of Homeland Security and the attorney general to publish a list of states and local jurisdictions that they considered to be obstructing federal immigration laws. The list is to be regularly updated. Federal departments and agencies, working with the Office of Management and Budget, would then be tasked with identifying federal grants or contracts with those states or local jurisdictions that the federal government identified as “sanctuary jurisdictions” and suspending or terminating the money, according to the executive order. If “sanctuary jurisdictions” are notified and the Trump administration determines that they “remain in defiance,” the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security are then empowered to pursue whatever “legal remedies and enforcement measures” they consider necessary to make them comply.

The designation is of course controversial, especially since DHS’ idea of “legal remedies and enforcement measures” may differ from anyone else’s. It’s also straight out of Project 2025. The fact that OMB — Russ Vought — is involved is a red flag to anyone who sides with democracy rather than autocracy. And we know that trump will consider anything less than complete capitulation to be “remaining in defiance.”

We also know that trump thinks that “empowering law enforcement” should include military force. Would he actually consider deploying troops in “sanctuary jurisdictions” to give ICE free rein? I wouldn’t rule it out.

The list is also controversial because it seems to have been generated by an intern (or an intern-created AI) because although DHS published its “sources,” a number of jurisdictions are reacting with “WTF are we doing on this list?!?” (“DHS publishes a list of 500 sanctuary cities for ‘obstructing the enforcement’ of Trump’s deportation plans,” The Independent, May 30):

But many officials hit back after finding themselves on the list, claiming they’ve been outspoken supporters of the president and his stringent immigration policies. The list was compiled using a number of factors, including whether the cities or localities identified themselves as sanctuary jurisdictions, how much they complied already with federal officials enforcing immigration laws, if they had restrictions on sharing information with immigration enforcement or had any legal protections for people in the country illegally, according to the department. […] But communities said the list doesn't appear to make sense. In California's Orange County, the city of Huntington Beach is on the list even though it has sued the state over its policies that protect immigrants and its City Council supports Trump. But the nearby city of Santa Ana, which has policies to protect members of its sizable immigrant community, is not.

Here’s why I think the list was compiled by a pee wee league AI (“What is a ‘sanctuary jurisdiction’ and how was the US list of them made?” AP, May 30):

Several communities said they have been outspoken supporters of the president and his stringent immigration policies and do not understand why they have been included. Among them: Shawano County, Wisconsin; Alexandria, Virginia; and Huntington Beach, California. Jim Davel, administrator for Shawano County, thinks the administration may have confused the county’s vote in 2021 to become a “Second Amendment Sanctuary County” that prohibits gun control measures with it being a safe haven for immigrants. He said the county has approved no immigration sanctuary policies.

“Find every local and state government that has a sanctuary policy and flag them!” seems to be the order of the day.

At least DHS is removing erroneous listings and who woulda thunk it, Lauren Boebert accidentally said something true, at least about the arbitrary inclusion of some governments (“DHS removes two CO counties, one city from 'sanctuary jurisdictions' list less than 24 hours after release,” ABC Denver 7, May 30):

U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert, who represents the state's 4th Congressional District, told Denver7 on Friday that she helped remove the three Colorado entities [Weld and El Paso counties and the City of Aurora] from the list. […] The congresswoman said the inclusion of these specific jurisdictions was based on "inaccuracies." "I do think that this was a lot of bad data, old data, that was being looked at, but the Trump administration has admitted that if there is a wrong, they will be swift in getting that corrected," Boebert said. "We are already seeing the corrections being made in real time, and there will be more." When asked if, based on those "inaccuracies," the Trump administration released the list preemptively, the congresswoman said no. "I don't think that this is too quick to release it," Boebert said. "What really matters is that we get it right."

I think “preemptively” should have been “prematurely” but whatevs, the list was inaccurate when it was published. And Boebert’s last sentence is only correct if you think the Federal government is inherently incompetent and error-prone. It wouldn’t have taken much time or effort to contact the entities in question and confirm they have immigration sanctuary policies in place before publishing the list. But “check your work” isn’t efficient, or something.

Having to make multiple corrections to a hastily-compiled list may have an unintended consequence: the site is down as of the time of this writing, and has been down since sometime last night. Fortunately, the internet archive cached a copy so you can see the list as it appeared on May 31 here. A quick glance shows that there aren’t any jurisdictions in Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, or Texas. But Boise? Seriously?

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/1/2325416/-Here-s-where-ICE-will-strike-next?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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