A controversial list of “sanctuary jurisdictions” published Thursday by the Department of Homeland Security has already been removed after an outcry from law enforcement leaders.
The new list was supposed to increase pressure on cities and counties that have thwarted the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. But it provoked a backlash from mayors and county sheriffs, many of whom said their jurisdictions did not belong on the list.
“This list was created without any input, criteria of compliance, or a mechanism for how to object to the designation. Sheriffs nationwide have no way to know what they must do or not do to avoid this arbitrary label," said Kieran Donahue, President of the National Sheriffs' Association. Donahue had warned that the list’s publication “could create a vacuum of trust that may take years to overcome."
Inexplicably, Huntington Beach was one of the jurisdictions included. Surf City is a MAGA stronghold that has gone out of its way to support the administration’s policies. The city passed a resolution this year declaring itself a “non-sanctuary city.” It’s also suing the state over its sanctuary law, SB 54.
Amador County was also cited as a sanctuary jurisdiction, even though its sheriff has publicly proclaimed he will not comply with SB 54.
A number of U.S. city names on the list were misspelled. Certain cities were misidentified as counties and vice versa.
The now-defunct list of sanctuary jurisdictions is just the latest blunder at DHS. In April, the department mistakenly sent emails to U.S. citizens warning that they must leave or be removed from the country. (The notices were intended for recipients of humanitarian parole.) A recent investigation by the conservative CATO Institute found that at least 50 Venezuelan migrants removed from the U.S. and sent to El Salvador’s notorious Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison have no criminal record and were not in the country illegally. And during testimony on Capitol Hill, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem erred when she was asked if she knew what the term “Habeas Corpus” meant. Noem incorrectly identified Habeas Corpus as “a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country." The bedrock legal procedure actually protects individuals from unlawful detention by allowing them to petition a court after confinement.
Noem was asked about the removal of the sanctuary jurisdiction list on Fox News this past Sunday. She did not acknowledge any errors, insisting that the cities which appeared on the list "do qualify" as sanctuary jurisdictions.