The Trump administration has released a new list of localities and states it considers “sanctuary jurisdictions,” and Fairfax County is no longer on it.
The Justice Department identified some three dozen states, cities and counties as so-called sanctuary jurisdictions on Tuesday (Aug. 5), two months after the federal government quietly removed a much longer list that included many localities that support the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies.
The earlier, typo-riddled list was met with pushback from across the political spectrum, with officials often saying it wasn’t clear why their jurisdictions were included.
There’s no clear definition of sanctuary jurisdictions, but the term is generally applied to state and local governments that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Fairfax County was among the localities mentioned on the initial list published on May 29, along with several other localities in the D.C. area. At the time, Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay questioned Fairfax County’s inclusion, stating that the county was in full compliance “with all applicable federal and state laws, regulations and court orders.”
“Immigration enforcement falls squarely within the authority of the federal government,” he said in a statement to FFXnow.
He argued the county’s Trust Policy prohibiting voluntary cooperation with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) supports public safety by helping local police build “trust with all residents, regardless of immigration status.”
With its new announcement, the Justice Department listed “characteristics” of “sanctuary jurisdictions,” including the existence of formal policies that limit police cooperation with ICE and restrictions on information-sharing.
Fairfax County’s Trust Policy, which bars county employees from assisting and sharing information with ICE unless required by law or court order, hasn’t changed since it was adopted in 2021. The Fairfax County Police Department also has its own general order telling officers they have no authority to enforce federal immigration laws and directing them to follow the Trust Policy, though some immigrant rights advocacy groups worried revisions implemented earlier this year created potential loopholes.
It’s unclear how the Justice Department decided which states and localities to include in its new list, which is composed overwhelmingly of Democratic jurisdictions, including states like New York, California and Connecticut, cities like Boston and New York City and a handful of counties, including Baltimore County, Maryland, and Cook County, Illinois.
At a state level, Virginia has generally cooperated with the Trump administration’s increased immigration enforcement activities. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin established a new Virginia Homeland Security Task Force that includes state police and corrections personnel, and earlier this week, he expressed support for the prospect of the Virginia National Guard assisting ICE.
The Justice Department’s new announcement doesn’t appear to threaten consequences beyond what the federal government is already doing.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi warned in the announcement that the department would “continue bringing litigation against sanctuary jurisdictions and work closely with the Department of Homeland Security to eradicate these harmful policies around the country.”
“Sanctuary policies impede law enforcement and put American citizens at risk by design,” she said.
The press release notes that the new list “is not exhaustive and will be updated as federal authorities gather further information.”
“The federal government will assist any jurisdiction that desires to be taken off this list to identify and eliminate their sanctuary policies, so they no longer stand in opposition to federal immigration enforcement,” the Justice Department said.
The administration never fully explained the errors in the first announcement, which included hundreds of jurisdictions, including places that had voted overwhelmingly for Trump and at least one that had declared itself a “non-sanctuary city.” The list was published in late May on the Department of Homeland Security’s website but within three days was replaced with a “Page Not Found” error message.
Trump officials have long warned that the federal government would go after jurisdictions that resist the president’s plans for mass deportations. In April, Trump signed an executive order requiring Homeland Security and the attorney general to publish a list of jurisdictions they believe are obstructing federal immigration laws.
The administration has filed a series of lawsuits targeting state or city policies it says are interfering with immigration enforcement, including those in Los Angeles, New York City, Denver and Rochester, New York. It sued four New Jersey cities in May.
In late July, a judge in Illinois dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit that sought to disrupt limits Chicago imposes on cooperation between federal immigration agents and local police.
In Connecticut, Democratic officials pushed back, arguing there’s no reference to sanctuary jurisdictions in state law.
Attorney General William Tong called the description of sanctuary states in the Department of Justice announcement “a concocted fiction” of the Trump administration.
Connecticut’s Trust Act law has limited how police in the state can work with federal immigration since 2013.
Associated Press reporters Tim Sullivan and Susan Haigh also contributed to this report.
