The Border Went Quiet, So the Fight Moved Inland

For fifteen straight months the administration has reported zero migrant releases at the southwest border, and July apprehensions fell to 9,295, a 55-year low ^[1][2]. By the government's own numbers, the border is quiet. So the fight has walked inland. Border czar Tom Homan said it plainly last summer ^[3].

We’re gonna flood the zone — Tom Homan

He promised to saturate sanctuary cities with enforcement. What followed is not one legal battle but five, running at once. The federal government is suing states. The Justice Department has filed against Illinois, Minnesota, Oregon, New York, Colorado, and now Maryland, and it published a list of 35 sanctuary jurisdictions it wants to "eradicate" ^[4]. The campaign has scaled from 14 targets to 21 ^[5]. States are suing the federal government back. Twelve attorneys general challenged the Homeland Security grant cuts; New York's allocation dropped 86 percent, from $187 million to $30 million ^[6]. Eighteen states joined a suit over masked raids ^[7]. Counties are suing their own states. Rensselaer County and more than 20 sheriffs sued New York to overturn its new ban on ICE cooperation ^[8]. In Maryland, 17 of 24 sheriffs sued their own state over its Community Trust Act ^[5]. Washington is sponsoring those county rebellions. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made the offer explicit ^[9].

And if there is a county in this country, whether it’s red or blue, that seeks to cooperate with the federal government to remove violent illegal criminal aliens from their communities, this administration is here to help. — Karoline Leavitt

And states are weaponizing their own laws against federal agents. Illinois allows $10,000 in damages against agents who make arrests near courthouses, and it created a commission to gather evidence for criminal prosecutions ^[10]. Red states are running the same play in reverse. Tennessee passed a law mandating that all 95 county sheriffs enter 287(g) agreements with ICE by January 2027, with state funding withheld for noncompliance ^[11]. Indiana's attorney general sued the town of Merrillville for passing a resolution against an ICE facility ^[12]. In Texas, Governor Abbott threatened to withhold grants and World Cup security money, and Houston, Dallas, and Austin all amended their policies. Houston's mayor said the city had no alternative ^[13].

We’ve got to have today the restoration of the $114 million. — John Whitmire

The hinge is "local control." New York's governor says that on civil immigration matters ICE is on its own, and the state banned local police from 287(g) agreements ^[14]. Tennessee mandates the opposite. In Maryland, Democrats rejected amendments that would have let individual counties decide, insisting on a statewide ban ^[15]. Yet in New York and Maryland, conservative sheriffs are the ones demanding local choice. Both parties believe in local control exactly when they control the locality. The courts are not settling it. Judges keep dismissing the federal suits on Tenth Amendment grounds. In New York, Judge D'Agostino ruled that no such federal laws exist, because the Tenth Amendment prohibits Congress from conscripting state and local officials ^[16]. Colorado was dismissed on a 1997 Supreme Court precedent ^[17]. Los Angeles was dismissed too ^[18]. The Justice Department's answer is to keep filing ^[16].

President Trump's immigration enforcement agenda is a top national security and public safety priority that this Department of Justice will continue to vigorously defend whenever challenged in court. — United States Department of Justice

Nobody is winning decisively. A judge let the funding cuts proceed ^[19]. Texas forced its cities to capitulate. But the sanctuary suits keep falling, and the administration keeps expanding to new targets, including New Jersey's in-state tuition policy ^[16]. Both sides have found the same tool: use whichever level of law you control against whichever level resists. The courts are not producing a verdict. They are producing a patchwork, and it keeps spreading.