Sanctuary Cities

Secure borders and enforced immigration law remain unfinished work in 2026. The next Congress must fund detention beds, close asylum loopholes, and punish sanctuary jurisdictions that obstruct federal enforcement.

Customs and Border Protection logged roughly 42,000 southwest border encounters in May 2026. That total demolishes the claim that the border is sealed, and Congress should fund deportation, not another blank check for bureaucrats who ignore existing law.

Congress should fully fund CBP and ICE rather than cut enforcement during a border crisis. Border Patrol staffing sits around 19,730 agents, far below its 26,000 authorized level, and sanctuary cities shield deportable aliens from ICE.

Local officials who refuse Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers should lose federal law enforcement grants, because every ignored detainer puts a criminal alien back on the street and signals that immigration law is optional.

Sanctuary jurisdictions routinely refuse ICE detainers, release criminal aliens back onto the street, and force federal agents into dangerous confrontations. Taxpayers in those cities foot the bill while law-abiding citizens pay the steepest price in lost safety and lost trust.

The border crisis did not solve itself. It was contained by policies that treat illegal entry as a violation of law, not a scheduling problem. Washington should expand detention capacity, end catch and release, and make clear that sovereignty has a price.

Illegal crossings have fallen, but interior enforcement now depends on sheriffs and local police who refuse to let sanctuary policies shield criminal aliens. The real fight for sovereignty happens in county jails and city councils, not in the cable-news studios of Washington.

The Trump administration's ICE enforcement surge in May 2026 exposed how sanctuary jurisdictions obstruct federal immigration law. Local officials who shield criminal aliens from deportation violate the plain text of 8 U.S.C. 1324 and betray their own law-abiding residents.