Spicy Spicer: We're going to frick Sanctuary Cities

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President Donald Trump is signed an executive order Wednesday meant to crack down on so-called “sanctuary cities” for undocumented immigrants. Trump vowed during his campaign to stop taxpayer dollars from going to jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal authorities on immigration enforcement.

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The politicized term “sanctuary city” has no official definition and is somewhat misleading.

On one hand, jurisdictions such as Seattle and King County aren’t true havens for undocumented immigrants because they don’t actually wield the power to stop federal authorities from deporting people. On the other hand, cities and counties can’t be required to enforce federal law themselves. Seattle considers itself a sanctuary city because its police officers are prohibited from inquiring into a person’s immigration status, with some exceptions.

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But whether and how the president can cut off funding is a matter of debate. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that for Congress to impose conditions on the receipt of federal dollars by states, those conditions must be reasonably related to the purpose of the money. In other words, it may be that immigration-related conditions must be linked only to immigration-related funding.

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