Chicago Mayor Johnson pushes back on Trump's threat to cut off federal funding to sanctuary cities
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is pushing back on presidential threats to cut off all federal funding to sanctuary cities. At stake is approximately $3 billion in federal grants.
Legal action is expected if President Donald Trump follows through with those cuts.
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Mayor Johnson says threats to cut federal funding would be illegal. His message to the Trump administration was "we'll see you in court" if the president makes good on his threats to punish sanctuary cities amidst the ongoing ICE enforcement activities.
The mayor hosted a discussion Wednesday about public safety efforts, bringing together 5th District police and community violence intervention groups. Potential federal funding cuts posing a threat on many levels, including for CVI programs.
"We're going to continue to work with our partners, with corporations and philanthropic community to help fill that gap," Johnson said.
But the Mayor's bigger funding problems could stem from the most recent threats by President Trump towards sanctuary cities like Chicago and states that have them.
"Starting February 1st, we're not making any payments to sanctuary cities or state's having sanctuary cities because they do everything possible to protect criminals at the expense of American citizens," Trump said.
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The mayor's office says Chicago receives more than three billion dollars in federal grants annually, spending about $1 billion each year.
"First of all, he can't do that, right?" Johnson said. "So, I just wanted to level set this president has threatened our city and other cities across America on multiple fronts. I just want to name the fact how unnatural this person's behavior is."
Chicago's sanctuary law bars police from cooperating with ICE and Border Patrol on civil immigration enforcement matters, something that has been a long standing source of frustration for the President. The impact of potential cuts could be wide-spread.
"So everything from public health to in our transportation system to safety," Johnson said.
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On Wednesday, the Trump administration slashed several thousand grants totaling $2 billion for programs supporting mental health and addiction treatment programs.
"Mental health care is health care and so is substance use treatment," Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said. "And so I'm, people are gonna be devastated by this, I am devastated on behalf of people today and we're gonna do everything we can to take them to court and bring back the funding."
The battle over funding took a new twist Wednesday, with Congressman Mike Quigley planning to introduce an amendment to the Homeland Security budget to cut funding for ICE and Border Patrol if they don't change the aggressive tactics that have played out in Chicago, and most recently in Minneapolis.
