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DHS Removed Sanctuary Cities List After Complaint 
from Sheriff’s Association

Loaded on July 15, 2025 published in Prison Legal News July, 2025, page 37
Filed under: Immigration, Enforcement of Immigration Laws, Asylum. Location: United States of America.

On June 1, 2025, the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removed a list of sanctuary cities it had highlighted on its website, after the National Sheriffs’ Association complained that its publication could jeopardize local law enforcement agencies’ relationship with federal agencies. 

The president of the association, Kieran Donahue, described DHS’s publication as “a list of alleged noncompliant sheriffs in a manner that lacks transparency and accountability.” DHS had previously published a list of sanctuary cities on its website after Trump claimed the lack of cooperation between state and federal law enforcement on immigration policy amounted to a “lawless insurrection.”

Democratic officials in cities including Chicago, Boston, Denver, and New York appeared in March 2025 before congress, where they argued that so-called “sanctuary policies”—which typically bar local law enforcement from assisting with federal immigration enforcement—make communities safer. They noted that law enforcement agencies in their jurisdictions do not interfere with federal enforcement. 

Trump has since ramped up his efforts to crack down on blue cities whose immigration policies depart from his own. After a series of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles spurred protests there in June 2025, Trump ordered U.S. Marines and national guardsmen to police the city.  

 

Sources: The Guardian, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

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