Confusion in Philly and elsewhere as ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’ list removed

The confusion around the Trump administration’s release of a massive list of so-called sanctuary cities intensified on Monday after the government removed the list from the internet.

The removal followed weekend criticism from the National Sheriffs’ Association, which said the list’s inclusion of supposedly “non-compliant” sheriffs could damage the relationship between the administration and law enforcement.

The list reappeared briefly for some people Monday morning before disappearing again.

“My hope is that Trump maybe picked up a Bible and saw the countless teachings to welcome your neighbor and love your neighbor as yourself, but I highly doubt that,” said Peter Pedemonti, co-director of New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia.

The listing going up and then down shows how the administration is “cruel but incompetent,” he said Monday.

“This is not a moment to exhale,” he said, noting that Trump has threatened to cut federal funding to jurisdictions that don’t help enforce federal immigration laws. “Philadelphia and every other county should prepare to file lawsuits and fight this at every step.”

Philadelphia, long a strong sanctuary jurisdiction but now a “welcoming city,” has received no official notification from the federal government about potential cuts, City Solicitor Renee Garcia said Monday.

Confusion around which cities, counties, and states were named began almost immediately after the list was released Thursday night.

Leaders in three rural Pennsylvania counties that Trump won by more than 20 percentage points were surprised to see that their federal funding was now at risk. Those GOP-controlled counties never held sanctuary policies surrounding immigration, a topic that has been major target of the Trump administration.

The only “sanctuary” policies some of them have were implemented in response to sanctuary initiatives elsewhere, intended to reaffirm their allegiances to the federal government’s rules.

In central Pennsylvania’s Montour County, the commissioners passed a 2021 resolution making the 18,000-resident community a “Bill of Rights Sanctuary County.” Clarion County, a Western Pennsylvania county of about 37,000 residents, passed a resolution naming itself as a “Second Amendment Sanctuary County” in 2021, declining to enforce any law that restricts gun access.

Philadelphia was prominent on the Trump administration list, long having been a sanctuary leader. The list named jurisdictions, hundreds across the country, that the administration believes are not helping enforce federal immigration laws — and now face cuts in federal funding as a result.

On the Department of Homeland Security website, the page where a list of “sanctuary jurisdictions” had been visible since Thursday evening now shows a “Page Not Found” error message.

DHS issued a statement later on Monday that said “the list is being constantly reviewed and can be changed at any time and will be updated regularly.”

Patty Torres, co-executive director of the immigration advocacy group Make the Road PA, on Monday called the list “haphazard” and “brazen overreach” by the federal government.

“Vague lists of enemies are just weak cover to target and punish anyone that DC insiders disagree with — an illegal move that won’t be tolerated,“ she said.

The removal came after the National Sheriffs’ Association criticized the inclusion of many cities and counties as “arbitrary.”

“This list was created without any input, criteria of compliance, or a mechanism for how to object to the designation,” wrote National Sheriffs’ Association president Sheriff Kieran Donahue of Canyon County, Idaho, a Trump supporter who visited the White House in April.

“DHS has done a terrible disservice to President Trump and the sheriffs of this country. The President’s goals to reduce crime, secure the Borders, and make America safer have taken a step backward,” Donahue added over the weekend. “The sheriffs of this country feel betrayed.”

Speaking on Fox News on Sunday morning, DHS secretary Kristi Noem said nothing about removal of the list but did mention criticism over the inclusion of some jurisdictions.

“Some of the cities have pushed back,” Noem said on Sunday Morning Futures. “They think because they don’t have one law or another on the books that they don’t qualify, but they do qualify.”

She added, “That list is absolutely continuing to be used, and it is going to be identifying those cities and those jurisdictions that aren’t honoring law and justice.”

The list, which included areas in 30 states, accused local leaders of “deliberately and shamefully” obstructing enforcement of federal laws and endangering American communities.

The removal of the list left Philadelphia collar-county officials as baffled as they had been when it was released.

“I don’t know, it’s a crazy world,” Josh Maxwell, a Democrat who chairs the Chester County Board of Commissioners, said Monday. “Hopefully they’re getting more accurate information.”

Three of Philadelphia’s four collar counties — Chester, Montgomery, and Delaware — were listed as sanctuary jurisdictions that violated federal immigration law.

Bucks County, the one swing county in the region and the only county that voted for Trump last year, was not considered a sanctuary county. Its sheriff is seeking to have his deputies work with ICE through a controversial partnership agreement.

None of the four counties have approved policies declaring themselves sanctuary jurisdictions.

As of Monday morning officials across the counties said they had not heard directly from the federal government explaining their placement on the list or the consequences of inclusion.

While some hoped that the removal of the list indicated some jurisdictions may come off it, they also pointed to the general unpredictability of the Trump administration.

“It sort of speaks to the ‘act first and ask questions later’ tendencies of the current presidential administration,” said Delaware County Councilwoman Christine Reuther.

Montgomery County Democratic commissioners Neil Makhija and Jamila Winder published an opinion article in The Inquirer last month declaring that no county worker would be deputized to help ICE. They have said the county’s new immigration-services officer is working to ensure that county employees are not asking about residents’ immigration status.

Despite pressure from activists to adopt a formal welcoming-county policy, county officials have said they lack the power.

The Democratic commissioners said in statements Monday that the county was following federal and state law, but they did not directly dispute the sanctuary designation.

Makhija compared the DHS list to a “poorly-prompted ChatGPT response.”

Winder said the county values all its residents, including immigrants.

“While some may label us a ‘sanctuary jurisdiction,’ what that truly reflects is our unwavering commitment to fairness, dignity, and public safety for all residents,” she said.

Homeland Security officials claim that sanctuary jurisdictions protect criminal, undocumented immigrants from facing consequences while putting law enforcement officers in peril.

Officials in those jurisdictions say that’s silly, that they simply choose not to spend local tax dollars to help ICE do its job. Undocumented immigrants living in so-called sanctuary cities are not shielded from federal immigration enforcement, nor from being arrested and charged by local police for local offenses.

Montgomery County Commissioner Tom Dibello, the lone Republican on the board, said Monday that he had spent the end of last week reaching out to contacts in Washington, including Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, whose district encompasses Bucks County and part of Montgomery, seeking an explanation for the county’s inclusion on the list.

“This doesn’t make any sense to me,” DiBello said. “If my inquiries prove out to be fruitful, we’ll be removed from the list.”

Similarly, Chester County’s GOP commissioner, Eric Roe, said he had been trying to contact colleagues who used to work for DHS, hoping to get in contact with agency officials.

Roe said Chester County does everything in its legal power to cooperate with ICE.

“Why single us out, why lump us in with the rest of the southeast when we’ve been cooperative?” he asked.

Bucks County’s Republican sheriff, Fred Harran, has applied to participate in a controversial program that would allow his deputies to collaborate more directly with ICE. However, as the ACLU threatened a lawsuit, the Democratic-led board of commissioners expressed disapproval, insisting that the agreement is invalid without their endorsement.

The Trump administration said in a statement to news organizations last week that areas were chosen based on several factors. That included “self-identification as a sanctuary jurisdiction, noncompliance with federal law enforcement in enforcing immigration laws, restrictions on information sharing, and legal protections for illegal aliens.”

Last week, Philadelphia, formally discarded the sanctuary name. Garcia, the city solicitor, declared, “Philadelphia is not a sanctuary city. We are a welcoming city.”

The same was echoed by other officials.

“Philadelphia is a welcoming city,” City Councilmember Rue Landau said in a statement Thursday night. “That has been our stance, and this list is Trump’s attempt to instill more fear and uncertainty among the immigrant communities.”

Inquirer reporter Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.