It’s not about immigration – or rather, it’s not just about immigration.
Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, sent letters this week to dozens of cities and counties around the country, warning them that their leaders could be prosecuted and federal funds stripped from their cities if they don’t “cooperate” with Donald Trump’s deportation scheme.
The threats against cities come amid a backdrop of a crackdown on crime in Washington DC, where Trump, after similar actions in Los Angeles, has sent in the military against the wishes of local leaders.
The attacks on cities will not stop with Washington.
Using immigration as a pretext, the Trump administration wants to go after Democratic-run cities across the country to settle political scores, assert the president as a strongman and, potentially, arrest his opponents.
“Individuals operating under the color of law, using their official position to obstruct federal immigration enforcement efforts and facilitating or inducing illegal immigration may be subject to criminal charges,” Bondi wrote.
Or, as Bondi told Fox News after the letters were sent, she is telling local leaders: “You better be abiding by our federal policies and with our federal law enforcement, because if you aren’t, we’re going to come after you.”
In DC, the administration drew a lawsuit over its takeover of the city’s police force, after Bondi sought to end sanctuary policies that prevent local law enforcement from sharing information with immigration officials about people in custody.
Related: How Trump is using ‘pure lies’ about high crime in US cities to justify federal takeovers
If the Trump administration moves forward with threats to charge local officials, it would be an escalation of Trump’s long-simmering war on cities. The president has sought to paint cities as liberal “hellholes” in need of liberation, delivered through military takeovers and arrests.
On the campaign trail in 2024, Trump often went on diatribes against cities, calling out specific places that he wanted to target. In one speech from early 2024, he promised to “take over the horribly run capital of our nation” and said he would “rebuild our cities into beacons of hope, safety and beauty – better than they have ever been before”.
He continued this tradition this week, naming majority Democratic cities run by Black mayors – Baltimore, Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago – and putting them on notice that he could come there next.
Bondi’s letter spells out what cities are facing financially if they defy the president: Trump has directed federal agencies to look at their statutory ability to tie “immigration-related terms and conditions” to “combat sanctuary policies” when they are doling out federal grants, contracts and funds.
Trump’s allies who wrote Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for a second Trump administration, suggested using this tactic to force cities, counties and states to aid immigration enforcement. In his first administration, Trump tried to use a justice department grant program this way, but the plan was tied up in court for years.
Cities are ready to fight back. They have been in court defending their rights to create local policies that prevent their police forces from carrying out Trump’s immigration agenda. Localities that received the letter have said it mischaracterizes their policies and ignores local control. Bruce Harrell, Seattle’s mayor, said his city will remain a “welcoming city for all” and will continue to defend itself in court if needed.
And if Trump brings troops to their streets, they say they will be ready to push back.
“We will be prepared to take any legal and any other action that we need to take,” said Brandon Scott, Baltimore’s mayor, in a press call on Thursday. “And I know that my brother and sister mayors around the country feel the same way.”
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