Following substantial criticism for incorporating communities that have openly backed the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies, the Department of Homeland Security’s website no longer features the much-anticipated list of “sanctuary jurisdictions.”
The department released the list of jurisdictions last week. Each would be formally informed if the government determined that they were not cooperating with federal immigration enforcement and if they were suspected of breaking any federal criminal laws, according to the statement.
On the department’s website, the list was posted on Thursday, but on Sunday, it was replaced with a “Page Not Found” error message.
The Trump administration’s efforts to target states, jurisdictions, and communities that it claims aren’t doing enough to support its immigration enforcement agenda and the president’s pledges to deport more than 11 million people living in the United States without a valid reason included the creation of the list.
According to a senior DHS official, the list is under continual review, subject to change at any time, and will be updated on a regular basis.
“Designation of a sanctuary jurisdiction is based on the evaluation of numerous factors, including self-identification as a Sanctuary Jurisdiction, noncompliance with Federal law enforcement in enforcing immigration laws, restrictions on information sharing, and legal protections for illegal aliens,” according to the official’s statement.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated, “Sunday Morning Futures” that there had been anger from some officials about the list. However, she didn’t address why it was removed.
“Some of the cities have pushed back,” Noem stated. “They think because they don’t have one law or another on the books that they don’t qualify, but they do qualify. They are giving sanctuary to criminals.”
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Officials in towns ranging from blue to red and urban to rural criticized the list, which was rife with misspellings, claiming it didn’t seem to make sense.
Despite having filed a lawsuit against the state’s immigration sanctuary statute and passed a resolution this year designating the community as a “non-sanctuary city,” the city of Huntington Beach in California was included on the list.
Shawano County, Wisconsin administrator Jim Davel stated that his community’s inclusion must have been a clerical error. Davel and 67% of Shawano County cast their ballots for Trump.
Davel believes that the administration might have mistaken the county’s 2021 vote to become a “Second Amendment Sanctuary County,” which forbids gun control measures, for an immigrant safe haven. According to him, no immigrant sanctuary policies have been approved by the county.
