In a significant policy announcement, former President Donald Trump has reignited his controversial campaign to withhold federal funds from US states and cities that adopt so-called 'sanctuary' policies towards immigration.
Detroit Declaration Targets Democrat Strongholds
The declaration came during a wide-ranging speech delivered at the Detroit Economic Club on the evening of Tuesday, 13 January 2026. The event followed a separate incident earlier that day where Trump was seen making an obscene gesture towards a heckler at a Ford plant in the city.
Starting 1 February, the Trump administration will cease all federal payments to sanctuary cities or to any state that contains one. "They do everything possible to protect criminals at the expense of American citizens," Trump stated, framing the move as a public safety measure. He added that such policies "breed fraud and crime and all of the other problems that come."
The US Department of Justice has identified 11 states and the District of Columbia, all under Democratic control, as jurisdictions that "materially impede enforcement of federal immigration statutes and regulations." A further 18 cities and three counties are also on the list.
Legal Challenges and Constitutional Concerns
The policy was immediately condemned by opponents. Brandon Johnson, the Democratic Mayor of Chicago, vowed legal action, calling the announcement "blatantly unconstitutional and immoral." In a strongly worded statement, Johnson asserted that federal funds "belong to the people of Chicago, not the President," and promised, "We'll see you in court."
This is not the first legal hurdle for Trump's approach. In August 2025, a district judge in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction, blocking a similar attempt to deny funding to over 30 cities, labelling it a "coercive threat." A federal appeals court is currently reviewing that ruling by Judge William Orrick.
The Detroit speech indicates a strategic shift, expanding the threat to withhold money not just from individual sanctuary cities, but from any state that harbours them.
A Pattern of Targeting Blue States
This latest action fits a pattern of the Trump administration leveraging federal funding against states that did not support him politically. Just last week, the administration froze more than $10 billion in federal childcare and family assistance funds to California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York—all states with Democratic governors. A district court judge temporarily blocked that order over the weekend.
Furthermore, in October 2025, the administration moved to cancel $7.6 billion in clean energy grants allocated to 16 states. Notably, all 16 had voted for the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, in the 2024 election. In a 17-page order blocking those terminations, District Court Judge Amit Mehta found they were "primarily - if not exclusively - based on whether the awardee resided in a state whose citizens voted for President Trump in 2024."
While the Detroit address was ostensibly focused on economic affordability, Trump diverged into other contentious topics. He criticised the Somali community in the US and stated an intention to "reverse [the] citizenship of any naturalised immigrant from Somalia or anywhere else who is convicted of defrauding our citizens." Legal experts note that citizenship can typically only be revoked for fraud committed during the naturalisation process itself.
Earlier on Tuesday, the White House separately announced it was ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalis living in the US. Official figures from March 2025 show only 705 Somali nationals were covered by this programme.
