The Trump Administration isn’t backing down in its fight against the left on the matter of immigration this time around, as was revealed by the announcement of its bold strategy for taking on the sanctuary cities that have proven such a thorn in the side of its generally restrictive immigration policy that aims to deport illegal aliens.
That revelation of the anti-sanctuary city strategy came when Marc Thiessen, a Fox News Channel commentator and former Republican speechwriter, commented on what he has learned the House border czar Tom Homan and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller are doing to crack down on sanctuary jurisdictions.
Saying he is impressed with what they aim to do, the Fox News conteributor explained that Miller and Homan will begin employing federal felony warrants on located illegal aliens, as those are far harder for sanctuary jurisdictions to ignore than the usual civil detainers issued by ICE.
Explaining as much, Thiessen began by telling his co-panelists that Democrats don’t seem to get the illegal immigration issue, saying, “Two elections now, Donald Trump has beaten the Democrats, powered by illegal immigration, and they still can’t seem to get it right. You have people literally burning cars, throwing rocks at ICE agents, and the Democrats are siding with the protesters over the administration trying to restore law and order.”
Continuing, he noted that why this time seems different in regard to the sanctuary city matter and leftist riots is that the administration has figured out how to handle the sanctuary cities. He said, “And what has the left riled up, and what’s causing all this, is that the Trump administration has figured out a way around sanctuary city laws.”
Then, explaining what that new tactic is, Thiessen noted, “Local officials can refuse to honor an ICE detainer, but they can’t refuse to honor a federal felony warrant. So the Trump administration has this thing called Operation Guardian Angel, where they are charging illegal migrants who reenter the country with felony illegal reentry, and then they are presenting the local jurisdictions with federal felony warrants, and they have to hand them over.”
Next, describing the effects that the new strategy of issuing federal felony warrants has had, and how that has been what really set off the leftist protesters, he said, “So they’ve been handing over hundreds of illegal migrants to ICE, and this has set people off—they found a way to basically lock the sanctuary city policies.”
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Watch Thiessen here:
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/06/08/marc_thiessen_trump_wh_has_figured_out_how_to_blow_up_democrats_sanctuary_city_policies.html
Chiming in, Shannon Bream, an FNC host, noted that the tactic has really set the leftist activists off, with the ACLU having denounced the federal felony warrants tactic as an “inflammatory and abusive use of power,” the sort of hysteric statement that shows it is working.
Bream further added that the ACLU has claimed, regarding the new anti-sanctuary city policy, “By taking this action, the Trump administration is putting them in danger, creating jeopardy for troops, and recklessly undermining our foundational democratic principle that the military should not police civilians.”