Will Small ‘Sanctuary Cities’ Defy a Trump Crackdown?

Big “sanctuary cities” like Chicago and New York say they are determined to defy President-elect Donald Trump’s command to detain undocumented immigrant criminals. But many smaller ones may find it harder to do so.

Smaller cities and counties that ignore requests from federal authorities to detain undocumented immigrants, but don’t see themselves as sanctuaries, may find themselves vulnerable to the president-elect’s threat to withhold federal money from them if they do not cooperate, especially in states where Trump won a majority of votes.

Trump has said he wants to deport some 2 million to 3 million immigrants with criminal records. That figure is an apparent reference to the 1.9 million immigrants with criminal records estimated by the Migration Policy Institute, of which 820,000 are unauthorized to be here.

And Trump has vowed to withhold what amounts to hundreds of millions, if not billions, of federal dollars for policing, jails, courts, housing, roads and education from cities, counties and states that provide a “sanctuary” by not cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and detaining the criminals for deportation.

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