Freedom

Opinion by Ingrid Jacques, USA TODAY

Pam Bondi isn’t wasting any time getting started on her job. Kudos to her. 

The newly confirmed U.S. attorney general is playing hardball on illegal immigration, as her boss President Donald Trump wants. 

That includes going after the dozens of “sanctuary” jurisdictions (states, cities and counties) that have decided to defy federal immigration law and provide haven to immigrants here illegally. 

Many of these Democrat-led enclaves – think California, Oregon, Denver, Chicago, Washington, D.C., etc. – are blatantly flaunting the law, and saying they’ll refuse to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on deportations. 

So Trump and Bondi are punching back, threatening to cut off Justice Department funding to these sanctuary districts. 

Bondi’s memo states: “To protect the American people from the effects of unlawful immigration, President Trump has prioritized securing our Nation’s borders and enforcing federal immigration laws. In furtherance of that objective, the Department of Justice will ensure that consistent with law, ’sanctuary jurisdictions’ do not receive access to Federal funds from the Department.”

How refreshing, after four years of former President Joe Biden’s de facto open border policies that allowed for unprecedented illegal immigration in defiance of federal law.

The Trump administration must now clean up Biden’s mess. And it’s disheartening to see Democratic mayors and governors stand in the way. 

It also doesn’t make any sense. More on that shortly.

Democrats told us they are the ‘defenders’ of democracy. They’re not. 

Democratic officials all over the country have taken to grandstanding about how they’ll stand up to the Trump administration and ICE. 

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said late last month that he would not cooperate with federal law enforcement officers on deportations.

“I want to speak directly to people who are undocumented: We love you. We care about you,” Frey said at a news conference. “In the city of Minneapolis, we will stand up for you and we will do anything in our power to help because you’re not an alien; in our city, you’re a neighbor.”

“Our police officers will not be cooperating with federal law enforcement around federal immigration law,” he added. “We enforce state and local laws here in Minneapolis, and we will do so to the best of our ability. But as for cooperation with ICE, the answer is no.”

After getting lectured by Democrats the past few years about how they’re the defenders of democracy, forgive me for pointing out how hypocritical it is for liberals to pick and choose which laws they want to follow. 

Disregarding our most basic immigration laws and border policies isn’t heroic. It’s harmful to our country. 

Yet, Frey is far from alone. 

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy recently told a progressive group that he and his wife had discussed housing a migrant. 

“I don’t want to get into too much detail, but there is someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not yet at the point that they are trying to get it to,” Murphy said. “And we said, you know what? Let’s have her live at our house above our garage. And good luck to the feds coming in to try to get her.”

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said she would “absolutely not” assist with federal deportation efforts, and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston even alluded in November that he’d be willing to use police to keep ICE agents out of the city. 

Democrats have forgotten they can’t afford what illegal immigration is doing to their cities

This show of lawlessness by Democrats is counterintuitive on several levels. 

First of all, it was mayors like Johnston who in recent years raised the alarm that their cities were close to a breaking point. Johnston had to divert millions of dollars from the city’s coffers to cover the costs of thousands of migrants. 

Other mayors of large blue cities, including Chicago and New York City, made similar pleas to Biden and Congress to help them deal with the crisis that the Biden administration caused. 

To his credit, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been one of the most outspoken Democrats about the unsustainability of the illegal immigration his city has faced over the past few years. 

Adams recently told state lawmakers he needs an additional $1.1 billion to fund migrant services. 

“We have still spent more than $6.9 billion to care for the immigrants over just three fiscal years and anticipate spending billions more in the years to come,” Adams said. 

Democrats who insist on flaunting federal immigration laws are also completely ignoring the message voters sent in November. Illegal immigration was one of the top reasons the country ditched the Democrats and gave Trump a second term. 

So it’s really unclear who they’re trying to impress. 

Regardless, Trump is following through on his promises to secure our border and ensure we know who exactly is coming into this country.

Americans will thank him for that.