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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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  2. From the Editor, by Paul Wright
  3. Free Calls in Massachusetts Lead to 
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  4. 14th Alabama Sheriff’s Employee Pleads Guilty 
in Jail Detainee’s Death by Freezing
  5. $12 Million for Former California Prisoner 
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  6. $340,000 for Former Massachusetts Prisoner 
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  7. Latest Jail Booking Info Is Based on New Data Source
  8. JPay Loses Bid to Revoke Class Certification in Washington Prisoners’ Challenge to Crummy Products and Service
  9. Over One-Third of Older Texas Prisoners 
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  10. Trump Pardons Virginia Sheriff Convicted 
of a Bribes-for-Badges Scheme
  11. New Jersey Supreme Court Refuses Guard’s Challenge to Firing 
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  12. Oregon Prisoners Can Now Seek Economic Damages 
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  13. Bold New Orleans Escape Calls Attention 
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  14. D.C. District Court Dismisses Class Action Against BOP 
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  15. Sixth Guard Sentenced in West Virginia Killing 
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  16. Nearly $60,000 Awarded to Mother Of Dead Missouri Prisoner 
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  17. Gag Order on Tennessee Attorney for Criticizing CoreCivic 
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  19. Eleventh Circuit Announces New Deliberate Indifference 
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for Skipped Anti-Seizure Meds, by Douglas Ankney
  20. Ninth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Arizona Challenge 
to Private Prisons
  21. Wiccan Nevada Prisoner Wins 18-Year Fight for Religious Items, by Clark Nelly
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  23. California Prison Plagued by Toxic Water and Chronic Illness
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  26. First Circuit Revives Rhode Island Prisoner’s 
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  30. Trump’s “Border Czar” Was 
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  32. First Circuit Affirms Denial of Qualified Immunity to Maine Guards who Ogled Prisoner During Childbirth, by David Reutter
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