Trump vows cuts to Mass. sanctuary cities
One day after calling out Boston and Lawrence as safe havens for drugdealing illegal immigrants, President Trump reiterated his call to crack down on sanctuary cities and strip them of federal funding, pitting himself in a battle against Bay State officials as the courts consider legal challenges to his plans.
At a White House roundtable meeting with law enforcement officials, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Trump decried sanctuary cities, saying that they protect “thousands” of criminals in the country illegally and committing serious crimes.
“In many cases they are very bad actors,” Trump said, vowing to continue efforts to strip federal funding from local municipalities that do not report illegal immigrants to federal authorities.
Trump’s meeting comes a day after he singled out the two Massachusetts cities during his remarks on the opioid crisis in Manchester, N.H., where he said sanctuary cities exacerbate the problem of drug trafficking.
“These are bad people,” Trump said Monday.
“In Boston, Massachusetts, which is a place where you have sanctuary cities, I’m repeating my call on Congress to block funds for sanctuary cities and to close the deadly loopholes that allow criminals back into our country and into our country in the first place.”
Trump also cited Lawrence as being a hotspot for gang activity and fentanyl drug trafficking.
Mayor Martin J. Walsh accused Trump of smearing both the “immigrant community and those suffering from substance abuse.”
“It’s time to stop painting all undocumented immigrants as criminals,” Walsh said in a statement. “Our immigrant community makes positive contributions to our city each and every day.”
Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera said the president should back greater investments in community policing and treatment programs instead of demonizing “some bogeyman that came across the border.”
The Justice Department is currently locked in a number of legal battles with local municipalities over sanctuary cities. Federal courts have blocked Trump’s attempts to deny federal funding to several cities and states over their sanctuary city status.
The Trump administration has stepped up its offensive, bringing legal action against the state of California over its sanctuary city laws, claiming that they violate the federal government’s authority to set and enforce immigration policy.
In December, the Justice Department also sent notices to 29 local jurisdictions it identified as sanctuary cities — including Lawrence — demanding information about their immigration enforcement practices.