Trump Calls On Congress To Pass Legislation Ending Sanctuary Policies

President Donald Trump on Sunday called on Congress to pass legislation to end sanctuary jurisdiction policies as tensions run high over the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old man in Minneapolis, the latest violent confrontation between ICE officers and demonstrators across the country.

In a Sunday evening Truth Social post, Trump wrote that he was “calling on the United States Congress to immediately pass Legislation to END Sanctuary Cities” and asking for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and all Democratic mayors and governors “to formally cooperate with the Trump Administration to enforce our Nation’s Laws, rather than resist and stoke the flames of Division, Chaos, and Violence.”

The call comes just a day after federal agents fatally shot Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti during a tense confrontation. The incident prompted Walz and Frey to once again urge the Trump administration to walk back its deployment of several thousand immigration enforcement officers to the state.

The requests from Minnesota’s elected officials for federal agents to leave the state reached a fever pitch after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Renee Good in her car in Minneapolis earlier this month.

Since then, Minnesota Democrats have maintained that federal officials have created chaos by surging immigration enforcement in the state.

Walz said last week he had received a subpoena as part of an investigation into him and other Democrats in the state after Trump warned the state’s leaders in a social media post that “THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”

Walz and Frey’s offices did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In his post, Trump asked the leaders to turn over all unauthorized immigrants with an active warrant or known criminal history — in addition to those currently held in state jails, prisons and by local police — to federal authorities for immediate deportation. He also demanded they agree to assist federal law enforcement in their nationwide immigration crackdown.

Earlier Sunday, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara previewed what will likely be city officials’ response, telling CBS’ “Face The Nation” of the city’s sanctuary policies: “It's not on the Minneapolis Police Department or local law enforcement to hand folks over that are in jails.”

“The city police do not operate a jail that's at the county level and the prisons are at the state level, so we are complying with the law as we have been for many years,” he told host Margaret Brennan on Sunday. “And I don't know what else could possibly be asked of this very, very, you know, understaffed and overstretched police department.”

But Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) applauded Trump’s comments on social media, calling the proposal “a remedy that Democrats should accept and America needs.” Graham on Sunday morning vowed to introduce legislation to end sanctuary jurisdiction policies — which limit law enforcement from cooperating with immigration authorities — at some point this week.

“As for my part, I will champion a legislative effort to end sanctuary city policies forever, which could lead to rational immigration reform,” Graham wrote Sunday evening on X. “I hope Democrats will see the wisdom of this, and the Senate will come together to end sanctuary city policies that are net losers for the country.”

Federal officials have repeatedly blamed Walz and Frey for the clashes between federal authorities and locals in Minnesota, citing their unwillingness to cooperate with the administration’s immigration crackdown.

"Unfortunately, when you don't have the partnership of the city, Mayor Frey and Governor Walz have been very clear that they're going to continue their rhetoric. They're going to continue to put criminals and corrupt illegal aliens above the people in that city and state,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News on Sunday. “They've said they're not going to help us, so we'll make sure that we protect your officers, but we also follow through on making sure these criminals are brought to justice.”

The Trump administration has already taken several steps to crack down on sanctuary jurisdictions, filing lawsuits against several Democratic-run states and cities and vowing to suspend their federal funding beginning Feb. 1. The Office of Management and Budget also ordered a review of federal funding this week for 14 Democrat-run states and Washington, D.C., per a memo reviewed by POLITICO.

While blue states have for years limited the extent of their cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, several have doubled down on their policies in the wake of aggressive ICE operations that have sparked outrage from Democrats.

While Minnesota has not enacted legislation designating it as a sanctuary state, the Justice Department in August included it in a list of sanctuary jurisdictions targeted by the administration. Minneapolis and several other cities and counties in the state have barred local government employees, including law enforcement, from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.

In the wake of Pretti’s shooting, attorneys for Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul urged District Judge Kate Menendez, who is weighing a demand to block the Department of Homeland Security’s operation altogether, to curtail the administration’s operation in Minnesota in a Saturday night court filing.

An estimated 3,000 federal immigration agents have been dispatched to Minneapolis as part of Trump’s “Operation Metro Surge,” an immigration enforcement tactic that has drawn the ire of local officials and Democrats nationwide.