New bill targets sanctuary cities obstructing immigration enforcement

Exclusive: The SHIELD Act — Protecting Internal Immigration Enforcement from Local Detention — would prevent local police from arresting federal agents, in response to recent Democratic claims that state and local officials should be able to intervene.

Efforts from the left to thwart the president Donald Trump“Mass deportation” efforts have often been tied up in court, as happened when Obama-appointed Judge William Orrick He threw cold water In an earlier attempt to strip sanctuary cities of federal funding.

On Friday, House Budget Committee Chairman Jody Arrington, R-Texas, will introduce the SHIELD Act, which he told Fox News Digital would “defend the rule of law and stand up to far-left extremists by cutting off every federal dollar to any jurisdiction that obstructs or prosecutes our officers — even once — as they carry out their critical security responsibilities.”

“I’m proud to lead the fight to support us Federal officers “And hold lawless politicians who undermine the safety and security of the United States fully accountable,” Arrington said.

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Federal agents knock on the door of a suspected illegal immigrant in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Ryan Murphy/Getty Images)

Similar efforts — including the Trump administration’s attempt to punish sanctuary cities banned by Orrick — have come from the executive branch, while Arrington’s proposal would create a new law.

“Any state or local leader who arrests federal agents for immigration enforcement is abandoning the heart of the constitutional order, aiding and abetting criminal illegal aliens, and fueling the perverse incentives that drive illegal immigration,” Arrington added.

In recent weeks, some Democrats have pledged varying levels of interference in DHS operations.

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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson She ordered the creation of “ICE-free zones” in October, amid “Operation Midway Blitz” and DHS’s use of public spaces like a city-owned lot on Kedzie Street for staging.

“We will not tolerate ICE agents violating the constitutional rights of our residents and we will not allow the federal government to ignore our local authority,” Johnson said at the time.

“Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are detaining elected officials, tear gas protesters, children, and Chicago police officers, and mistreating Chicagoans,” he added, claiming his order reflects the constitutional rights of immigrant communities.

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Rep. Jody Arrington, R-Texas and Chairman of the House Budget Committee, center, speaks during a House Budget Committee meeting at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, May 18, 2025. (Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

to the west, California lawmakers — some of whom succeeded as plaintiffs in the Orrick case — and have indicated in recent weeks that local authorities may be able to detain federal officers during immigration operations.

Actors. Nancy Pelosi and Kevin Mullen, both Democrats from San Francisco, publicly supported that district’s district attorney after A.J New York Times report She said she came up with the idea to prosecute problematic federal agents after the fact.

“I had time to think about the power I have and what I can do,” Brooke Jenkins told the newspaper. “This is something I felt strongly about, and I asked my office to look into it.”

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Pelosi and Mullen said in a statement that reports of possible Los Angeles-style raids in the Bay Area would be a “horrific abuse of law enforcement power.”

“It is important to note that California law protects communities and prohibits federal agents from taking certain actions here that we have seen in other states.”

Pelosi, who represents most of San Francisco, and Mullen, who represents a small slice of it along with Daly City and part of San Mateo, criticized Trump’s supposed “absolute immunity”; Thanks to the Supreme Court, adding that customers in San Francisco will not have this so-called advantage.

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“[I]“If they violate California law — and if they are convicted, the president cannot pardon them,” Pelosi and Mullen concluded.

Arrington’s bill It will directly address San Francisco’s musings and perhaps Illinois opposition efforts continue.

A single instance of arrest, detention, prosecution, or obstruction by a federal immigration officer would result in an entire fiscal year’s loss of federal financial aid.

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The Department of Justice will then be able to recover federal funding only if the municipality stops such behavior and certifies it in writing.

Legal experts agreed that Arrington’s bill would go to court.

Holtzman-Vogel partner Elizabeth Foley — who previously worked for Democratic Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and later on Republicans’ legal challenge to ObamaCare — told Fox News Digital that Congress has already established this pattern by setting the nationwide drinking age at 21, a policy that withholds portions of USDOT funding to states below that limit.

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The difference in drinking ages means that a 19-year-old from Allentown, Pennsylvania, who couldn’t drink in 1983, could cross the Delaware River into Philipsburg, New Jersey, and do so legally for an additional two years.

Foley noted that the Supreme Court upheld the Reagan administration’s policy in the 1987 case Dakota v. Dole.

“Placing restrictions or conditions on the receipt of federal funds is common,” Foley said.

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“Because Congress alone has Treasury authority, any conditions on the receipt of federal funds must be unequivocally set by Congress,” she said, noting that the president lacks that authority per se, citing the Orrick case.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Jenkins’ office as well as Johnson for any comment on the general idea of ​​withholding funding from their municipalities due to their aversion to ICE enforcement.