New information obtained from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has enabled the Center to update its map of sanctuary jurisdictions. Based on the most recent reporting from ICE field offices, about 170 new jurisdictions have been added to the map. Some of these sanctuary jurisdictions are located in states that have passed laws to prohibit such policies. The states with the most jurisdictions added to the map are Virginia, North Dakota, Nebraska, New York, and Minnesota.
Since 2015, the Center has been tracking sanctuaries, which we define as those state and local jurisdictions that have laws, ordinances, policies, or practices that prevent state and/or law enforcement agencies from cooperating fully with ICE in gaining custody of criminal aliens who have been arrested for local crimes. Over the years, more than 10,000 criminal aliens have been released by local authorities due to sanctuary policies, and many of these criminal aliens have subsequently been arrested for additional crimes. In one eight-month period documented by ICE in 2014-15, of about 8,000 criminal aliens released by sanctuary jurisdictions, about 1,800 offenders were arrested again within the eight-month period for 7,500 new crimes.
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Some recent examples of criminal aliens who re-offended after being released by a sanctuary jurisdiction include:
- Fairfax County, Va., police arrested a Honduran man in July 2023 for a child sex crime. He was released by the county jail despite an ICE detainer. In February 2024, Fairfax police arrested him again on four more counts of child sex crimes, and again the jail released him on $10,000 bond. In April 2024, ICE sent a team of officers to arrest the offender at his home in Bladensburg, Md., stating that he would be kept in ICE custody until his proceedings are complete.
- In May 2023, police in Chelsea, Mass. arrested a Guatemalan man for operating a vehicle under the influence of liquor (fourth offense), possession of Class B controlled substance, giving false address with intent to hinder police, and operating a motor vehicle without a license. The man had been deported previously in May 2021 following a four-year spree of at least nine convictions for drug distribution, drunk driving, and reckless child endangerment. Despite two detainers and an order of removal, the Suffolk County jail in Boston released him. ICE officers arrested him on July 8, 2024, near his home in Chelsea, and he is reportedly still in custody.
- A Venezuelan man who was arrested seven times on 19 different charges within his first two months after arriving in New York City, including random violent attacks on strangers and police officers, and who is a suspected gang member, finally drew the attention of ICE officers, who obtained permission to file a detainer in September, 2023. The New York city jail ignored the detainer and released the man again. He was arrested two more times in the next two months (for disorderly conduct and larceny), and was ordered deported in June 2024, but reportedly remains in ICE custody due to a halt in deportations to Venezuela.
ICE for many years has been internally tracking the existence of non-cooperation policies and incidents of local jails or state corrections systems refusing to comply with detainers, and especially since the proliferation of sanctuary policies following the implementation of the Secure Communities program in 2012. This program enables ICE to receive an alert when a non-citizen is arrested and fingerprinted by local authorities, and then issue a detainer if appropriate and if resources and enforcement priorities allow. Anti-enforcement advocates failed to convince the Obama administration to block the program from being implemented by DHS and the FBI, so they instead launched a campaign to pressure state and local lawmakers to adopt policies to prohibit local police, sheriffs, jails, and courts from cooperating with ICE, usually by prohibiting them from complying with ICE detainers.
The Center first published its map of sanctuaries in 2015 after obtaining an internal ICE compilation of sanctuary jurisdictions and policies through a Freedom of Information Act request. Since then, we have tried to keep the list current using open source material. This update is the first since 2017 that is based primarily on ICE’s internal tracking of non-cooperation policies. The source is an internal report titled “Detainer Acceptance Tracker — Limited and Non-Cooperative Institutions”, dated June 21, 2024, which was obtained through a FOIA request. The non-co-operative jurisdictions are identified and reported to ICE Headquarters on a monthly basis by local ICE Field Offices.
A complete list of the newly added (and removed) jurisdictions is below. Among the changes:
- North Dakota has been listed as a state, as none of its 24 corrections facilities cooperates fully with ICE.
- Virginia has 27 additional counties and nine cities now listed.
- Nebraska has 21 additional counties and one city listed.
- New York has 13 additional counties listed.
- Minnesota has 12 additional counties or regional corrections centers listed.
- Jurisdictions were added in six states that have anti-sanctuary laws: South Carolina, Indiana, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas and North Carolina.
We frequently receive messages from concerned citizens, local officials, and other observers about the designation of sanctuaries, or the absence of some jurisdictions from the map and list, and encourage anyone with information about local policies on ICE cooperation to email us at [email protected], with “Sanctuary Map” in the subject line.
State laws that prohibit, penalize, or discourage sanctuaries do seem to be effective for the most part in assuring cooperation with ICE for the removal of criminal aliens. Since the enactment of state anti-sanctuary laws, there are no longer uncooperative jurisdictions in Texas, Florida, and Iowa. On the other hand, lawmakers in other states that have enacted anti-sanctuary laws should be aware of those jurisdictions that ICE has determined are not cooperating in cases of criminal aliens. These include:
- Charleston County, South Carolina
- Lake, Monroe, St. Joseph, and Wayne Counties in Indiana
- The city of Atlanta and Columbia, Douglas, Clarke, and DeKalb Counties in Georgia
- Power County, Idaho
- Douglas County, Kansas
- Guilford, Watauga, Chatham, Buncombe, Durham, Forsyth, Mecklenburg, Orange, and Wake Counties in North Carolina
- North Dakota jails and prisons
Some of these state laws include penalties for local sanctuary policies or remedies that can be pursued to compel them to cooperate with ICE. For example, under South Carolina code 6-1-170(E)(1), a citizen of a sanctuary jurisdiction can bring a civil action to have a local non-cooperation policy enjoined.
In the case of North Dakota, the state anti-sanctuary law appears to be written too loosely to ensure cooperation with ICE. Passed in April 2023, the law forbids all state and local institutions from prohibiting anyone from communicating or cooperating with federal agencies “to verify or report the immigration status of an individual.” The law does not require North Dakota jails and prisons to honor ICE detainers, as other state laws do. This is problematic for public safety in North Dakota, which is a border state with illicit trafficking routes, and which is in proximity to burgeoning drug cartel activity on tribal lands in Montana.
Often, county officials are concerned when they learn of their designation as a sanctuary, usually from their constituents, and move to reverse previously adopted policies that they recognize as contrary to public safety interests. We frequently provide assistance to local officials in adopting recognized best practices on ICE cooperation.
Other local officials reject the characterization of their community as a sanctuary, blaming the Center for inventing the definition of a sanctuary. For example, in July, following news stories about the designation of Delaware County, Pa., as a sanctuary, the county issued a statement denying it:
Some residents have referenced the County being listed on a website as being a sanctuary county. We believe they are referring to a private, non-governmental website [meaning cis.org] which lists Delaware County as being a sanctuary county. …This is factually untrue, and Delaware County should not be on this list.”
Similarly, at a public meeting on March 6, Diane Ellis-Marseglia, chair of the Bucks County (Pa.) Commission, derided the sanctuary term as something that the Center for Immigration Studies “came up with because they’re trying to make us look bad”, and that this designation should not be taken seriously because “it was not reported on multiple [television] networks”, just one (Fox News). Her remarks were followed by statements from the district attorney, jail director, and county solicitor, who all insisted that the county “fully cooperates” and maintains a “very good partnership” with ICE. (See this video of the county meeting, beginning at 1:07:34.)
Both Delaware and Bucks County continue to be named in ICE reports as “Limited Cooperation” jurisdictions that do not hold criminal aliens for adequate time to enable the Philadelphia ICE Field Office personnel to assume custody for removal proceedings. This determination has been made by ICE, not by the Center.
Jurisdictions Added
Georgia
- Atlanta
- Columbia County
- Douglas County
Idaho
- Power County
Indiana
- Lake County
- Monroe County
- St. Joseph County
- Wayne County
Kansas
- Douglas County
Kentucky
- Campbell County
- Franklin County
- Jefferson County
- Scott County
Maine
- Hancock County
Maryland
- Baltimore County
- Charles County
- Queen Anne’s County
- St. Mary's County
Michigan
- Kent County
- Leelanau County
- Luce County
- Muskegon County
- Oakland County
- Washtenau County
- Wexford County
Minnesota
- Anoka County
- Cottonwood County
- Dakota County
- Jackson County
- Kandiyohi County
- Lincoln County
- Lyon County
- Pipestone County
- Todd County
- Ramsey County
- Watonwan County
- Tri-County Corrections (covers Norman, Polk and Red Lake counties, located in Crookston MN)
Nebraska
- Arthur County
- Banner County
- Blaine County
- Douglas County
- Gosper County
- Grant County
- Greeley County
- Hayes County
- Hooker County
- Howard County
- Johnson County
- Logan County
- Loup County
- McPherson County
- Nance County
- Perkins County
- Platte County
- Sioux County
- Thomas County
- Wheeler County
New Hampshire
- Hillsborough County
New Mexico
- Chaves County
- Colfax County
- De Baca County
- Dona Ana County
- Eddy County
- Farmington
- Grant County
- Hidalgo County
- Lincoln County
- Las Cruces
- Los Alamos County
- Luna County
- McKinley County
- Otero County
- Quay County
- Rio Arriba County
- Roosevelt County
- San Juan County
- Sandoval County
- Santa Fe
- Santa Fe County
- Sierra County
- Socorro County
- Taos County
New York
- Monroe County
- Tompkins County
- Wayne County
- Yates County
- Saratoga County
- Warren County
- Dutchess County
- Rockland County
- Ulster County
- Orange County
- Putnam County
- Suffolk County
- Sullivan County
North Carolina
- Chatham County
- Guilford County
- Watauga County
North Dakota
Ohio
- Lorain County
- Mahoning County
Pennsylvania
- Berks County
- Mifflin County
- Washington County
South Carolina
- Charleston County
Virginia
- Alleghany County
- Augusta County
- Bedford County
- Brunswick County
- Campbell County
- Charlotte County
- Chesapeake
- Dinwiddie County
- Emporia/Greensville
- Gloucester County
- Halifax County
- Hampton
- Loudoun County
- Lynchburg
- Martinsville
- Mecklenburg County
- Middle River Regional (Staunton)
- Newport News
- Northern Neck Regional (Warsaw)
- Pamunkey Regional (Hanover)
- Portsmouth
- Prince William County/Manassas
- Rappahannock, Shenandoah Warren Regional
- Richmond
- Riverside Regional (N. Prince George)
- Rockingham County
- Southampton County
- Staunton
- SW Virginia Regional (Abingdon)
- SW Virginia Regional (Duffield)
- SW Virginia Regional (Tazewell)
- SW Virginia Regional (Haysi)
- Virginia Beach
- Virginia Peninsula Regional (Williamsburg)
- Western Tidewater Regional (Suffolk)
Wisconsin
- Dane County
- Milwaukee County
- Winnebago State Prison (Winnebago)
Wyoming
- Teton County
Editor's note: Kootenai County, ID has been removed from our list after ICE corrected their records and apologized.