For Some Democrats, Talk of ‘Sanctuary Cities’ Has Grown Quieter

At the dawn of the first Trump administration, cities and states led by Democrats were quick to air their outrage over the new president and his hard-line immigration policies.

Governors and mayors proclaimed their sanctuary status at news conferences and rushed to pass legislation in defense of immigrants. Even the Republican governor of Illinois at the time, Bruce Rauner, signed a sanctuary bill into law during Mr. Trump’s first year in office.

Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat who was then the mayor of Chicago, said in early 2017, “I want to be clear: We’re going to stay a sanctuary city.”

In the opening days of the second Trump administration, the defense of the term “sanctuary city” has been far less vocal.

Some cities, including Minneapolis, have since embraced the less politically charged phrase “welcoming city,” while keeping policies in place that limit local law enforcement agencies’ cooperation with federal immigration officials.

In New York City, the country’s largest sanctuary city, Mayor Eric Adams has staked out positions on immigration that align more closely with Mr. Trump’s than with those of his fellow Democrats.

In Chicago, a small group of City Council members tried last week to weaken an ordinance banning the Police Department’s cooperation with federal immigration officials, an effort meant to signal to Mr. Trump that during his second term, the city was open to working with him. The effort failed, but it revealed division among Chicago’s leaders.

And in Connecticut, which decided in 2019 to limit cooperation with immigration agents, William Tong, the attorney general, recently referred to the word “sanctuary” as “divisive.” “It puts a target on our backs, and it puts a target on all of your backs,” he said at a public forum.

Across the country, public support for immigration to the United States decreased under the Biden administration, according to a survey last summer. In the last three years, asylum seekers from Central and South America have strained city and state budgets in Illinois, Colorado and New York.

As some state and local officials have begun using more tempered language to describe their sanctuary policies, it has brought uncertainty about how far they might go to protect immigrants during a second Trump term.

“The last time, what you saw was large numbers of Democratic cities that were already sanctuary cities making robust defenses of their sanctuary policies and of immigrants more generally,” said Loren Collingwood, a professor of political science at the University of New Mexico and an expert on sanctuary cities. “You just don’t see that right now.”

There is no legal definition for a sanctuary jurisdiction. But it is generally understood to mean that a city, state or county has put limits on its cooperation with federal agencies’ efforts to deport undocumented immigrants.

In recent days, some of the most liberal-leaning cities that are sanctuary jurisdictions have loudly affirmed their policies, promising to keep local police departments largely separate from immigration enforcement activity in order to build trust with immigrant communities. Elected officials in many cities say it’s vital that immigrants feel comfortable reporting crimes and interacting with health departments and schools.

In San Francisco, elected officials were steadfast in their opposition to the Trump administration, with the Board of Supervisors unanimously agreeing to formalize the city’s sanctuary city policy next week with new legislation.

Days before Mr. Trump took office, the Minneapolis Police Department issued a statement reaffirming its longstanding policy of refraining from cooperating on immigration enforcement matters.

The policy prohibits officers from asking people about their immigration status, with rare exceptions, such as cases of human trafficking.

The city’s Democratic mayor, Jacob Frey, said he had decided to underscore the city’s posture because many in his community had expressed fear about the crackdown on illegal immigration the Trump administration promised to carry out.

“We’ve been doing a hell of a lot of work to build trust with these diverse communities, and we can’t go backward,” he said.

In conservative communities where sanctuary policies have long been unpopular, opposition to them has deepened.

Republican-run states like Texas, Florida and Indiana have passed laws barring cities and counties from adopting policies that prohibit sharing information with immigration officials.

“There are deadly consequences to not enforcing the law,” Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said in 2017 when he signed into law a bill banning sanctuary cities.

Florida, which has become increasingly strict on immigration matters under Gov. Ron DeSantis, passed a similar law in 2019.

After Indiana lawmakers passed a similar measure last year, the state’s attorney general, Todd Rokita, a Republican, sued the City of East Chicago over an ordinance it had adopted in 2017 barring city officials from cooperating with immigration agents. The city promptly revoked its ordinance.

The Trump administration increased the pressure on sanctuary jurisdictions this week, saying that it was planning crackdowns on illegal immigrants and would prosecute state and city law enforcement officials if they refused to enforce the administration’s new immigration policies.

The new administration sees getting access to undocumented immigrants in county jails a top priority, officials say. Thomas D. Homan, the Trump administration’s top immigration official, has warned local officials in counties that don’t allow immigration agents into jails that their policies will result in broader immigration sweeps.

“We’re going to find the bad guy and anybody else around him,” he told Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News personality, last month. “So by your actions, and not letting me in that county jail, means a lot more agents in your neighborhood, a lot more non-priority arrests.”

Tensions over the new Trump policies were on display this week in Colorado, a state that has been deeply strained by an influx of Venezuelan migrants in the last several years — and where the question of whether immigrants are offered “sanctuary” has prompted fierce debate.

A state law limits cooperation with immigration authorities, but Shelby Wieman, a spokeswoman for Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, said this week that “Colorado is not a sanctuary state.” She added, “We have laws in place that help guide interactions with the federal government to focus on combating crime and making Colorado safe, and we work closely with our federal counterparts on criminal law enforcement activities.”

More than 40,000 migrants arrived in Denver over the last two years, more per capita than any other American city.

To address a budget overrun of $180 million — funds that were used to care for migrants — the city cut hours at the Department of Motor Vehicles and recreation centers, halted the planting of spring flowers in parks and delayed purchasing new furniture for the police department.

Of the Trump administration’s plans for immigration raids, Mayor Mike Johnston of Denver, a Democrat, said that he had “always assumed Denver would be one of the first stops on whatever tour they are bringing.”

He added: “We’ve spent a lot of time preparing for whatever actions they’re going to bring, but with no real clarity of what that will look like. So I think that’s what drives the anxiety.”

Mr. Johnston has said that the city’s only cooperation with federal immigration officials will be honoring requests for release dates of violent criminals who are undocumented and in local custody. Under state and city law, local officials are forbidden from collecting the immigration status of anyone.

“We honor those requests when they come from the federal government, but we are not going to do ICE’s job for them,” he said. “We don’t ask for status. We don’t report status. And we are not going to conduct or aid on raids that they would plan to do in this city.”

Even in cities that do not identify as sanctuary cities, like Omaha, officials have expressed concern in recent days that undocumented immigrants may be too fearful seek police assistance in this new political era.

“We understand this uncertainty creates concerns and fear,” Mayor Jean Stothert, a Republican who is running for a fourth term, said in a video the city posted on its YouTube channel on Monday. “Enforcing immigration law is a responsibility of federal law enforcement agencies, not the Omaha Police Department.”

Heather Knight and Luis Ferré-Sadurní contributed reporting.