In some very good news from a very surprising senator, the office of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) announced that Graham has pushed forward a piece of legislation that would totally end sanctuary cities forever by imposing stiff criminal penalties on state and city officials who try to implement sanctuary policies.
As background, one of the major aspects of President Trump’s second term has been his continuing fight and feud with various sanctuary cities, such as Los Angeles and Minneapolis, as they refuse to turn over illegal aliens to ICE or to assist ICE and other federal agents in their immigration enforcement operations, which has led to chaos and put ICE lives at risk.
That situation exploded in Minneapolis with anti-ICE riots growing out of control and leading to the deaths of two agitators in separate incidents. After the second such incident, the president said, in a post on Truth Social, “I am hereby calling on the United States Congress to immediately pass Legislation to END Sanctuary Cities, which is the root cause of all of these problems. American Cities should be Safe Sanctuaries for Law Abiding American Citizens ONLY, not Illegal Alien Criminals who broke our Nation’s Laws.”
Sen. Graham moved to do so, as his office announced in a press release, saying, “U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) today introduced legislation to end the practice of sanctuary cities once and for all. Graham plans to seek a vote on this legislation when the Senate considers the fiscal year (FY) 2026 appropriations measure for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).”
Continuing, the office blamed sanctuary city policies for the chaos, then noted, “The legislation seeks to end sanctuary city policies forever by imposing criminal penalties on state and local officials who willfully interfere with the enforcement of federal immigration laws. If passed, this provision will restore order to areas experiencing disruptions, eliminate obstacles that hinder law enforcement operations, and reassert the federal government’s constitutional authority over immigration policy.”
His bill would, according to his office, make it “illegal for state and local officials to impede or obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws”, block both “state and local officials from safe harboring or shielding illegal immigrants from federal apprehension or withholding immigration records”, restrict state officials from blocking state police from cooperating with law enforcement, require they inform federal authorities when illegal aliens are released, and, most importantly, impose criminal penalties on sanctuary officials if those illegals they release go on to kill or injure Americans.
Graham, commenting on the matter to Laura Ingraham during an apperance on her show on Fox News Channel, explained, “The end is near for the lawlessness and fraud enabled by sanctuary cities. President Trump made his agenda clear, and it’s up to Republicans to deliver.”
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Continuing, Graham noted that the sanctuary cities are responsible for the ongoing chaos, saying, “I have publicly stated that some of the reforms to ICE and Border Patrol being advocated by Democrats make sense, like more training and body cameras. However, in my view, the real problem leading to chaos, is sanctuary city policies.”
He then explained, “I think the best legislative solution for our country would be to adopt some of these reforms to ICE and Border Patrol, but to also end forever the sanctuary city policies being pushed by 12 states. We should do three things: Fund DHS, make reforms and end sanctuary city policies.”
Watch him here: