IMMIGRATIONStates, Sheriffs Puzzle Over Trump’s Error-Filled List of Immigration Sanctuaries
A list of 14 states, 298 counties and 200 cities deemed immigration sanctuaries by the Trump administration has disappeared from a government website but continues to hang over the heads of officials who face threats of losing federal funding. “The list is gone. Am I satisfied that it was rectified? Yes. Am I satisfied that it’s over? No,” said Sheriff Charles Blackwood of Orange County, North Carolina.
A list of 14 states, 298 counties and 200 cities deemed immigration sanctuaries by the Trump administration has disappeared from a government website but continues to hang over the heads of officials who face threats of losing federal funding.
“We were placed on a list with many other sheriffs across the nation for no clear reason and no clear cause,” said Sheriff Charles Blackwood of Orange County, North Carolina, a heavily Democratic county that nevertheless complies with a new state law requiring cooperation with immigration arrests.
“The list is gone. Am I satisfied that it was rectified? Yes. Am I satisfied that it’s over? No,” Blackwood said.
The list went up May 29. It called out the “cities, counties, and states that are deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws and endangering American citizens.” The White House had already threatened “suspension or termination” of federal funds to them.
Along with counties and cities, the list named the whole states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia as “state sanctuary” areas.
There was immediate reaction from some areas, not only Democratic states and counties with court-tested legal policies of declining cooperation with deportation, but also conservative areas mystified by their inclusion.
“We figure it must be some kind of mix-up. We certainly support our fellow law enforcement agencies,” said James Davel, administrative coordinator for Shawano County, Wisconsin, which was included despite no apparent immigration sanctuary policy. The county voted for President Donald Trump in 2024 by more than 67%.
One possible explanation: The county board passed a resolution in 2021 declaring Shawano a “Second Amendment Sanctuary County” as a sign of “vigorous support of the peoples’ Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.”
The list disappeared from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security website in a matter of days, after the National Sheriffs’ Association complained that many counties were erroneously included.
“It was quite the debacle,” said sheriffs’ association spokesperson Patrick Royal. “We are working with the administration to resolve as much as we can.”
But Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a television appearance that the list would come back and was largely accurate.
“That list is absolutely continuing to be used and it is going to be identifying those cities and those jurisdictions that aren’t honoring law and justice,” Noem said in a Fox News interview June 1.
