President Donald Trump's administration has directed U.S. prosecutors to criminally probe state and local officials who resist immigration enforcement efforts, intensifying a sweeping crackdown that Trump launched the day he took office.
In a memo to Justice Department staff seen by Reuters, Trump's acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove, wrote, "Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing or otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands and requests."
The policy was issued as the new Republican administration prepares to step up policing of illegal immigration in cities with significant migrant populations, setting up potential confrontations with local officials in so-called sanctuary cities such as New York and Chicago that limit cooperation with such efforts.
The new memo underscored how Trump's Justice Department may try to back his immigration agenda by expanding threats of criminal charges beyond immigrants or those who employ them to city and state government officials. It is the latest in a series of executive actions since Trump took office on Monday to combat immigration, his top priority.
Trump declared illegal immigration a national emergency on Monday, tasking the U.S. military with aiding border security, issuing a broad ban on asylum and taking steps to restrict citizenship for children born on American soil. A U.S. official said on Wednesday the military would dispatch 1,000 additional active-duty troops to the Mexico-U.S. border.
Trump also instructed the attorney general to seek capital punishment against illegal immigrants who commit crimes such as murder that are potentially punishable by death.
The administration has rescinded Biden-era guidance limiting immigration arrests near sensitive places, such as schools and churches, and expanded immigration officers' power to deport migrants who cannot prove they have been in the U.S. for longer than two years, paving the way for increased enforcement.
Trump has also taken aim at federal diversity programs, ordering agencies to put officials overseeing diversity, equity and inclusion programs on leave by Wednesday and directing them to shut down their DEI offices by the end of the month.
The swift actions signal Trump's intention to fulfill many of his culture-war campaign promises by pushing the limits of executive power even further than he did during his first term in office from 2017 to 2021.
Americans are sharply divided on Trump's plans for mass deportations. A new Reuters/Ipsos survey showed 39% agreed with a statement that "illegal immigrants should be arrested and put in detention camps while awaiting deportation hearings," while 42% disagreed and the rest were unsure.
Some 46% of respondents said they approved of how Trump was handling immigration policy, compared with 39% who disapproved. Most respondents who backed mass arrests identified as Republicans, while most who did not were Democrats.
The poll, which surveyed adults nationwide on Jan. 20-21, found higher levels of support for making it harder for people to enter the country. Some 58% of respondents agreed with a statement that the U.S. should "dramatically reduce the number of migrants allowed to claim asylum at the border" while 22% disagreed.
State and local officials who resist or obstruct immigration enforcement could be charged under federal laws against defrauding the U.S. or harboring immigrants who are in the U.S. unlawfully, according to the memo. If prosecutors opt not to bring criminal charges following such investigations, they would be required to alert Justice Department leadership.
Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta dismissed it as a "scare tactic" during a Wednesday interview on CNN.
"We are very well aware of what the law requires us to do and what it permits us to do," he said. "We know that we don't have to participate in immigration enforcement activities."
Of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally or with temporary status in 2022, about 44% lived in states with sanctuary laws that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. That figure does not include those in sanctuary cities and counties in places without a statewide law, such as New Mexico.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration abruptly fired four of the department's senior career immigration officials from the Executive Office of Immigration Review, the office that runs the immigration courts, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Those removed included the office's former director Mary Cheng and Chief Immigration Judge Sheila McNulty, who was previously included by the conservative American Accountability Foundation on what it called a "Bureaucrat Watch List," the sources said.
In Mexico, authorities have begun constructing giant tent shelters in the city of Ciudad Juarez to prepare for a possible influx of Mexicans deported.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
23 Comments
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JeffLee
Oh my gawd, how controversial: enforcing your country's laws. How dare an elected administration do such a thing.
FizzBit
Europe is up next. Time for common sense to come back to most of the First World nations. Show them how it's done Donald.
JJE
American voters made their choice. Now it seems that 'polls' should override that.
The Avenger
75 percent of illegal workers did not show up for work in the San Joaquin valley today. Some people are saying it is winter time so it does not matter. It does matter, because an enormous pile of things - lettuce, carrots, grapes, spinach, brocolli, celery, oranges, lemons, are harvested at this time, it is never "winter" there. So there is something to the story and there might be shortages while the food rots.
Sympathy? NONE FOR THIS, the farmers set themselves up for this, My sympathy for the farmers is over the Delta smelt BS which Trump has already shut down. You can no longer cut off water to farmers over a fake fish issue, the "Delta smelt" are an invasive species anyway. So the farmers are going to have to accept a bit of give and take here.
bass4funk
Everyone acts so shocked, he campaigned on this, he said he would deport them if he would be re-elected, so here we are…
ok1517
bass,
yup, agree! He said it, people voted for him - now they start complaining.
They don't deserve any better!
Price for just everything will increase, eggs, vegetable, insulin, health care - all benefitting those oligarchs, billionaires and of course Trump and his clan. No way I feel sorry for MAGAs!!
theFu
If you aren't in the US legally, you should leave on your own, so you can take what's important to you - like your wife and children. Otherwise, I hope Trump removes all "carrots" from the bag of tricks used by illegal immigrants.
No access to any govt services should be allowed. City, state, or federal.
Enact laws that mandate employee validation of right to work. Every time I get a new job, I've had to provide I was allowed to work by showing documentation that proves it. As an employer, I had to check my people using e-verify to ensure they were legally allowed to work in the US. I don't understand why this is controversial.
America isn't anti-immigrant. We just don't want people skipping and jumping ahead of an existing, legal, line. People in the US illegally have skipped the line. That goes against the "fair play" idea we want in America. If someone tries to get in line for a concert before you, you wouldn't stand for it. Why should immigration be any different.
A law that prevents selling or long term renting for people in the US who aren't here legally needs to be passed too. These laws need to hold both the immigrants AND the employer/landlord/seller accountable. Put a few CEOs in jail for 5 yrs for hiring illegal immigrants and fine them 3x the pay for each illegal worker. Make it hurt.
For the illegal immigrants, make them have a lifetime ban on entering the US. Bury an RFID deep inside their tissue so it can't easily be removed, so they can be more easily caught in their next attempt.
Deportation isn't cost effective. No way can the US correctly deport all the illegal immigrants in the next 20 yrs. All the "carrots" need to be removed.
If this all doesn't work, I could be persuaded to allow non-lethal firearm use against illegal border crossings. Make fear be a deterrent for crossing the border away from official crossing locations. And just kill the Coyotes and blow up their vehicles, so they cannot be used.
No more carrots.
bass4funk
Liberals always complain
I agree
I don’t either, agreed and most of them were libs and Anti-Trump Republicans, they were warned, but they can always apply somewhere else.
lincolnman
Indeed - don't resist - there are too many employment vacancies at MAL, Bedminster, and Westchester...
Maids and groundskeepers are hard to find - especially illegal ones you can exploit and pay less....
Blacklabel
People in law enforcement are expected to enforce the law, yes. They don’t get to personally pick and choose.
kurisupisu
Either a country controls its borders or it doesn’t.
There is no halfway measure.
TaiwanIsNotChina
MAGAs: We are ending the lawfare right this very instant!!!
Also MAGAs: You will comply or else you will be indicted!!!
TaiwanIsNotChina
47 doesn't direct local law enforcement. You may wish he does but he doesn't.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Sounds like something that should be evaluated in court. I don't recall MAGA states being particularly compliant under Biden. The difference was Democrats weren't belligerent enough to declare martial law over it.
owzer
Not even remotely the same thing.
iknowall
The US prosecutors and state officials must obey the law.
Not too unique of a concept. Yet, the left will overreact and continue to show why the Democrats lost the presidential election.
Blacklabel
thats not “lawfare”.
Blacklabel
oh?
then what was this? Seems 46 thought local law enforcement had to do what he said under his federal immigration policy.
Yrral
Blacklabel on a court order can force them to comply,your representation of Trump is why he is a felon
bass4funk
At this rate, they're setting themselves to lose the midterms as well.
Ken
When life looks like a Twilight Zone/Black Mirror episode. What will happen first? WW3? Colonizing another country? Or J6 thugs hurting more police officers?
TaiwanIsNotChina
That's infrastructure and nothing else.
TaiwanIsNotChina
The Insurrection Act is already being considered. So how are my MAGA friends feeling about that these days?