WASHINGTON — A new House Republican bill would give the Trump administration the legislative green light to pull federal welfare funding for illegal immigrants from so-called “sanctuary” states and localities — if their officials refuse to help with mass deportations or other enforcement, The Post can reveal.
Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) filed the Law Enforcement Solidarity Act in the House on Monday to condition federal funding for food, housing, health care and legal services on a jurisdiction’s coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.
“Law enforcement officers who respond to the emergency call from their fellow officers should be celebrated, not chastised,” Tenney told The Post. “Yet, Rochester city officials are seeking to penalize the RPD officers who quickly responded to assist ICE during a traffic stop, simply because of Rochester’s unlawful sanctuary city policies.”
“That’s why I’m introducing the Law Enforcement Solidarity Act to make federal funding conditional on allowing local law enforcement to cooperate with federal law enforcement,” she added. “No law enforcement officer, local or federal, should be abandoned because of reckless policies driven by the Left’s political agenda.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency already told New York City officials this month that the US government was cutting $188 million in grants earmarked to deal with the migrant influx.
In all, the Big Apple is counting on $7.4 billion in federal funds for its fiscal year 2026 spending — roughly 6.4% of its total budget, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli estimated earlier this year.
Tenney’s bill comes ahead of an executive order President Trump will sign Monday afternoon “to provide a list of sanctuary cities in which local officials are not complying” with the feds, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday.
A San Francisco federal judge had dealt a blow to the president last week by ruling that earlier executive actions aimed at revoking US taxpayer funding for sanctuary states and cities were unconstitutional.
Those orders — Protecting the American People Against Invasion and Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders — were found to be “unconstitutionally vague” and in violation of due process rights as well as the states’ rights outlined in the 10th Amendment, US District Judge William Orrick wrote in an order granting a preliminary injunction.
The cities of San Francisco; Sacramento; Portland, Ore.; Santa Fe; Seattle; and New Haven, Conn., as well as Minnesota’s Twin Cities, were all listed as plaintiffs.
The Trump administration has already been battling with New York State and Chicago over their sanctuary policies in federal court.
Tenney’s bill will also require Attorney General Pam Bondi to submit annual reports to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees listing each jurisdiction that fails to cooperate with the feds on immigration enforcement.
Long Island GOP Rep. Nick LaLota ushered a bill last year through the House that would have pulled all federal aid funding for sanctuary jurisdictions — but it never was taken up in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
In fiscal year 2024, New York City spent $3.75 billion on migrant welfare services, according to previous disclosures by City Comptroller Brad Lander’s office, $237.3 million of which came from federal funding.
White House border czar Tom Homan revealed Monday that around 139,000 illegal immigrants have been deported since Trump returned to office Jan. 20.
