Mayors Stand Up to Trump’s Executive Order on Sanctuary Cities

I want to assure Seattle residents that while they are right to be alarmed about President Trump’s divisive vision, they should not be concerned that this City will be bullied into stepping away from its commitments and values. The City of Seattle will continue to protect the rights guaranteed to the City and its people by the United States Constitution and will challenge any unconstitutional policies that threaten the security of our communities.

As far as possible federal funding that might be curtailed if Trump is successful in his anti-sanctuary city endeavor, it’s not clear how much is at stake in Washington. Under federal law, there must be a nexus between what federal funding would be allocated to a recipient for a specific use and what the recipient is failing to do. In this case, sanctuary cities like Seattle are generally not assisting the federal government in identifying undocumented and “illegal” immigrants nor housing them in jails if they do know that such person may be in violation of federal law. As a result, it’s generally understood that the only money likely at stake is federal funding related to law enforcement activities. For Seattle, that could mean a $10 million hit for policing. Other buckets of funding like housing assistance, healthcare, and transportation likely couldn’t be impacted. The irony of this though is that taking away law enforcement money won’t help end the supposed “carnage” that Trump claims to want stopped.