The Department of Homeland Security has published a list of 500 so-called "sanctuary jurisdictions" on its website. That list includes several individual counties, the Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and the State of Minnesota.
The department says they're not in compliance with current immigration laws and might be in violation of federal criminal statutes.
Many of the jurisdictions on the list say they don't cooperate with immigration agents because doing so might make migrants reluctant to come forward it they're victims of - or witnesses to - a crime.
But the administration says it may suspend or cancel contracts with any jurisdictions that continue to refuse to cooperate with arrest and deportation efforts.
“These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press release.
Both Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter have been asked about the Trump Administration's claims since he came into office, and both say it's not their fight.
Mayor Frey says that the Minneapolis police department has more important things to do and adding immigration enforcement duties would be unsafe for the city.
"Look, I'm the mayor of this city and my responsibility is to make sure that people are safe and I want our officers, I want them stopping violent crime," Frey explained to Vineeta Sawkar on the WCCO Morning News in April. "I don't want our officers spending a single second assisting someone who's undocumented, and that's the only issue."
Carter told WCCO's Adam and Jordana in January that the city has no role in enforcing those policies and will continue to protect and help its residents as it has always done.
"For the president to threaten our safe spaces, is not just a threat, and this is part of the thing we all have to understand," Carter explained. "It's not just a threat against immigrants in our community. It's a threat against every single member of our community because that makes the fabric of our community less safe."
“Minneapolis is a city that fosters inclusivity, safety, and belonging. That’s something worth standing up for," says a Minneapolis city spokeswoman Jess Olstad in a statement provided to WCCO Radio. "The law is on our side. Two U.S. District Courts have already blocked the Trump administration from freezing funding to Minneapolis on this unlawful basis. We’ll proudly be on any list that reflects our values and commitment to the people who call Minneapolis home. We will always stand with—and fight for—our neighbors.”
While Minnesota has not officially declared itself a sanctuary state, Governor Tim Walz has expressed support for policies that limit state and local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities in certain situations. Walz has agreed with both mayors in believing law enforcement's primary role is to enforce state and local laws, not federal immigration law.
The counties listed on the DHS website include several across the metro area, but many in rural parts of the state as well.
They are: Anoka County, Carver County, Cottonwood County, Goodhue County, Hennepin County, Le Sueur County, Lincoln County, Lyon County, Martin County, Nicollet County, Nobles County, Otter Tail County, Pipestone County, Ramsey County, Scott County, Stearns County, Steele County, Todd County, Watonwan County, and Wright County.
A Wright County Commissioner, Kirby Moynagh, posted on social media in response to WCCO's story Friday, saying they don't belong on this list.
"In Wright County, we stand with law enforcement and the rule of law," said Moynagh. "Whoever put this list together is grossly mistaken to have added Wright County to it."
Moynagh joined WCCO's Jason DeRusha to discuss the listing by DHS. He tells DeRusha they've already reached out to Minnesota Sixth District Congressman and House Whip Tom Emmer (R) for clarification as to why Wright County is on there - especially in a heavily conservative-leaning county that on they say support the Trump Administration's efforts on illegal immigration.
"We support law enforcement and we support our law enforcement partners on the federal level in Wright County," Moynagh said. "So if they call and say, 'we need help with this,' or 'this is what we're doing,' we're there to help them."
The list was compiled using a number of factors, including whether the cities or localities identified themselves as sanctuary jurisdictions, how much they complied already with federal officials enforcing immigration laws, if they had restrictions on sharing information with immigration enforcement or had any legal protections for people in the country illegally, according to the department.
Trump signed an executive order on April 28 requiring the secretary of Homeland Security and the attorney general to publish a list of states and local jurisdictions that they considered to be obstructing federal immigration laws. The list is to be regularly updated.
Federal departments and agencies, working with the Office of Management and Budget, would then be tasked with identifying federal grants or contracts with those states or local jurisdictions that the federal government identified as “sanctuary jurisdictions” and suspending or terminating the money, according to the executive order.
If “sanctuary jurisdictions” are notified and the Trump administration determines that they “remain in defiance,” the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security are then empowered to pursue whatever “legal remedies and enforcement measures” they consider necessary to make them comply.
There's no specific or legal definition of what constitutes a “sanctuary jurisdiction.” The term is often used to refer to law enforcement agencies, states or communities that don't cooperate with immigration enforcement.
Some cities pushed back after finding themselves on the list.
Baltimore's Mayor Brandon Scott said on X that Baltimore is “not a sanctuary city," noting that Baltimore does not control the city's jails. Jails are a key area where ICE cooperates with local law enforcement authorities so it can be notified when immigrants are going to be released.
But Scott also said the city made no apologies for being a “welcoming city" and said it was preparing for litigation if needed to protect the city's immigrant community and the money it gets from the federal government.
“We are better because of our immigrant neighbors, and are not about to sell them out to this administration,” Scott said.
In a statement on X, the Las Vegas government said they weren't sure why DHS included it on the list and that they hoped to “clear up this misunderstanding." The city said that law enforcement and jail facilities there comply with federal law.
ICE enforces immigration laws nationwide, but often seeks state and local help in alerting federal authorities of immigrants wanted for deportation and holding that person until federal officers take custody.
One way that the administration seeks to enlist state and local support is through 287(g) agreements with local law enforcement agencies. Those agreements allow local law enforcement agencies to assume some immigration enforcement duties and greatly expand ICE's capabilities. The number of those agreements has skyrocketed in just a matter of months under the Trump administration.
ICE has about 6,000 law enforcement officers — a number that has remained largely static for years — who are able to find, arrest and remove immigrants it is targeting. By relying on local law enforcement, it can quickly scale up the number of staff available to help carry out Trump's mass deportations agenda.
Communities that don't cooperate with ICE often say they do so because immigrants then feel safer coming forward if they're a witness to or victim of a crime. And they argue that immigration enforcement is a federal task, and they need to focus their limited dollars on fighting crime.
“Sanctuary policies are legal and make us all safer,” said a coalition of local officials from across the country and a nonprofit called Public Rights Project in a statement Thursday. They said the list was a fear tactic designed to bully local governments into cooperating with ICE.
The Trump administration has already taken a number of steps targeting states and communities that don't cooperate with ICE — and has met with pushback in the courts. One executive order issued by Trump directs the Attorney General and Homeland Security Secretary to withhold federal money from sanctuary jurisdictions. Another directs federal agencies to ensure that payments to state and local governments do not “abet so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.