Can Trump Force Blue Cities to Cooperate With ICE?

What It Covers

The Trump administration demands Minneapolis jails cooperate with ICE deportations, reviving a decade-long battle over sanctuary policies. Border czar Tom Homan offers to reduce federal agents if local officials grant jail access, but legal barriers and political realities make cooperation unlikely in liberal jurisdictions.

Key Questions Answered

• •Obama-era cooperation model: Fifteen years ago, ICE maintained offices inside local jails and requested 48-hour holds on immigrants after arrest. Fingerprints automatically pinged federal databases, creating an efficient pipeline from county lockup to deportation that removed 400,000 people annually under this streamlined system.
• •Sanctuary movement legal strategy: Cities stopped cooperating after lawsuits proved costly when jails illegally detained immigrants beyond their release dates. Courts ruled local jurisdictions liable for ICE mistakes, creating financial incentives to separate criminal justice from immigration enforcement and avoid holding people without proper legal authority.
• •California's policy shift: During Trump's first term, California enacted statewide sanctuary laws severely limiting cooperation to only violent criminals. This represented an unprecedented expansion from city-level policies to state-level protection, making it legally impossible for most local officials to provide even basic notification of immigrant release dates.
• •Hennepin County's unique position: Sheriff Dawanna Witt controls Minnesota's largest jail and could unilaterally change non-cooperation policy without county commissioner approval. However, she won election post-George Floyd on a platform opposing ICE cooperation, making any policy reversal politically damaging despite having legal authority to act.
• •No guaranteed drawdown: Local officials have zero assurance that opening jails to ICE would reduce street enforcement or prevent confrontational raids. Two American citizens died during recent Minneapolis operations, eroding trust between local and federal law enforcement and making cooperation concessions a matter of abandoned principle without concrete benefits.