Last week, it appeared that business concerns might get Donald Trump to moderate his position on ‘mass deportations.’ Hospitality employers began openly complaining that they have struggled to keep operations going as workers have disappeared, afraid of getting arrested and deported due to their illegal-immigrant status. Trump offered some vague language on narrowing the focus of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, which also sounded like an attempt to de-escalate the tensions in Los Angeles and elsewhere.
Late yesterday, Trump doubled down on deportations and on tensions in urban centers. He pledged to gut the “Democrat Power Center[s]” by scaling up operations in “America’s largest Cities,” to stop Democrats from destroying inner cities across the country:
Our Nation’s ICE Officers have shown incredible strength, determination, and courage as they facilitate a very important mission, the largest Mass Deportation Operation of Illegal Aliens in History. Every day, the Brave Men and Women of ICE are subjected to violence, harassment, and even threats from Radical Democrat Politicians, but nothing will stop us from executing our mission, and fulfilling our Mandate to the American People. ICE Officers are herewith ordered, by notice of this TRUTH, to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.
In order to achieve this, we must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside. These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens. These Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities — And they are doing a good job of it! There is something wrong with them. That is why they believe in Open Borders, Transgender for Everybody, and Men playing in Women’s Sports — And that is why I want ICE, Border Patrol, and our Great and Patriotic Law Enforcement Officers, to FOCUS on our crime ridden and deadly Inner Cities, and those places where Sanctuary Cities play such a big role. You don’t hear about Sanctuary Cities in our Heartland!
Actually, we do, but the media is mouthier in places like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington DC. The lists of sanctuary cities in the US are all a bit different depending on the definition used, but most of those listed have declared themselves sanctuaries from ICE enforcement. That list includes:
- Denver
- Pittsburgh
- Minneapolis
- Iowa City
- Oklahoma City
- Columbus
- New Orleans
They do have one thing in common with their coastal and mouthier counterparts — they’re all run by Democrats. Most of them haven’t had a Republican administration in decades. In that sense, Trump’s point is accurate, even if it underplays just how far “sanctuary” conceits have permeated the body politic.
USA Today noticed Trump’s point about Democrat power centers, and made that the focus:
President Donald Trump directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to ramp up efforts to detain and deport migrants from large Democratic-run cities, escalating his illegal immigration crackdown despite widespread protests against the policy.
Trump made that part of his argument, so it’s fair to center on that aspect. However, the framing of this makes it sound as though Trump is being selective in this ramp-up, when in fact there simply aren’t any larger cities with Republican administrations in America. The few that might exist would not be declaring sanctuary status either. That defiance of federal authority is uniquely Democrat.
The question here, though, is whether this is possible, and whether Trump should be taken seriously rather than literally. ICE has limited resources, and even the boost it will get when the Big Beautiful Reconciliation Bill passes the Senate probably won’t be enough to fund the kind of massive expansion Trump’s proposing. That might have to wait for the FY2025-26 budget appropriations negotiations, which are taking place now for the October 1 deadline. Democrats will resist the kind of increases necessary to expand and sustain raids in their “power centers,” needless to say, and Republicans don’t have the kinds of majorities in Congress to ignore them.
Trump would certainly like to expand operations on that scale, and will fight to get those resources. This, however, seems more intended as a statement of purpose rather than the launch of raids on a much larger scale in the short term. The Truth Social posting sounds like a seriously-than-literally statement that makes clear that riots and defiance in Democrat “power centers” will not deflect him from his mission to reinforce federal authority on state and local jurisdictions attempting to use the Orval Faubus Method to obstruct ICE. Especially given its proximity to the absurd “No Kings” protests, the main intent is to show that Trump remains committed to ending any incentives for illegal immigration in the short and long terms.
So take Trump seriously on this, even if we don’t see a huge literal change up front. But also, don’t be surprised if we see incremental ramp-ups in some of these cities just to underscore the seriousness that Trump clearly wants to express.
