Elected officials in Queens have described President Donald Trump’s recent threats to withhold federal funding to any state housing sanctuary cities as an “authoritarian attempt” to punish areas that protect immigrant communities.
Trump on Jan. 14 announced that he would deny federal funds to any states that are home to local governments with sanctuary city policies starting Feb. 1, referring to cities that do not collaborate with federal immigration authorities.
“Effective February first, no more payments will be made by the federal government to states for their corrupt criminal protection centers known as sanctuary cities,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Wednesday.
The move marks an expansion of Trump’s previous threats to cut off federal funding to sanctuary cities that resisted his administration’s immigration policies. In August, a federal judge blocked Trump from denying funding to over 30 cities, including Boston and Los Angeles, due to their policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration officers.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, meanwhile, has vowed to sue the Trump Administration over the latest move, describing the threat as an effort to “intimidate” states like New York to “bow in submission.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, on the other hand, told reporters that he has texted Trump to express his concerns about the impact that federal funding cuts could have on his affordability agenda. The city’s budget relies on $7.4 billion in federal funding, according to the State Comptroller’s office, which is mainly allocated toward social services, housing and education.
“Any cut in funding would have a significant impact on the city’s ability to not only fulfill the budget that it has today, but also to fulfill an agenda that would ensure that more New Yorkers can afford to stay in the city,” Mamdani told reporters on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said the state received an estimated $96.7 billion in federal funding for the fiscal year 2024/25.
A number of Queens representatives in the state legislature strongly criticized Trump over the threats, with several lawmakers vowing to fight the Trump in court.
Assembly Member Catalina Cruz, a former undocumented immigrant who was born in Colombia, described Trump’s threats to withhold funding as “political retalition and punishment.” She said York’s sanctuary city policies help to keep communities safe. New York’s sanctuary city policies limit local cooperation with immigration authorities in order to ensure that immigrant populations can access essential services.
“New York has been clear from the start: our policies are about keeping communities safe, utilizing our resources to serve our neighbors, and not taking on the federal government’s responsibilities,” Cruz said in a statement. “Courts have repeatedly rejected these attempts to strong-arm cities and states. We’ve fought this before, and we fully expect New York to fight back again in court to defend our communities and uphold our values.”
State Sen. John Liu similarly vowed to fight against the move in court, adding that withholding federal funds would devastate the local economy.
“Threatening to withhold funding to cities that dare to care for our immigrant communities is an authoritarian attempt to punish those who choose basic humanity over fearmongering,” Liu said. “Doing so would devastate our local economy and the countless community-based organizations that provide programs and services to New Yorkers from all backgrounds.”
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said diversity is the “heartbeat” of the borough and accused Trump of stooping to a new “low” by threatening federal funding cuts for sanctuary cities.
“Here in The World’s Borough, we disprove Donald Trump’s dystopian white supremacist worldview every single day, and no threat from Washington will ever stop us from uplifting or defending our immigrant neighbors,” Richards said in a statement. “In this proud sanctuary city built by immigrants, like my own father, our diversity is the heartbeat of who we are and who we will continue to be, long after this administration is mercifully out of office.”
Council Member Julie Won said the threatened federal funding cuts are “reckless,” adding that the move “punishes” New Yorkers for keeping immigrant communities safe.
“Sanctuary city laws allow people to go to school, go to work, and report crimes without fear, which makes our city stronger, not more ‘dangerous,’” Won said.
She described the move as a “political play” that uses federal funds as a “political weapon” to target cities like New York for following due process. Won added that New York would “not be intimidated” into abandoning its values.
However, Council Member Joann Ariola, one of five members of the Council’s Republican Caucus, described the move as an act of “tough love.” Ariola said Trump “really does love New York City” and added that the President is attempting to threaten the city coffers in order to “get a handle” on undocumented immigration, which she described as a crisis.
“We’ve been spending billions here in the city to shelter people who came across the border illegally,” Ariola said. “Maybe once the money starts to dry up, the city administration will finally set their ideology aside, come back to reality and do something about the issue.”
Elected officials also blasted Trump for a recent State Department decision to indefinitely pause visa processing for individuals from 75 nations around the world. The measure, which comes into effect next week, applies to countries such as Russia, Brazil, Colombia and Somalia, which the Trump Administration has deemed likely to rely on public assistance in the United States.
The measure does not apply to non-immigrant visas, including tourist visas, student visas or temporary work visas like H-1B work visas or J exchange visas. The indefinite pause instead applies to immigrant visas, such as permanent residency visas. The State Department said non-immigrant visas make up the vast majority of all visa applications.
Still, elected officials criticized Trump over the move, describing the pause as a “cruel policy.”
Liu accused Trump of causing “foundational harm” to diversity in America, which he described as the nation’s “defining strength.”
“Halting immigration visas from a staggering 75 countries is pure paranoia that stands to cause irreparable harm to New York, and especially the nation’s most diverse county of Queens,” Liu said.
Cruz said the pause was a harmful policy that tears into families in Queens, noting that the borough is home to a number of international communities featured in the pause.
“The visa process is already expensive and arduous enough; shutting it down entirely is about targeted exclusion, not safety,” Cruz said.
Won, meanwhile, noted that 75% of her district is foreign-born, including a number of residents from nations included in the pause, such as Bangladesh, Nepal and Colombia. She accused the Trump Administration of “cutting off pathways” for families to reunite with each other in the US and build a future together.
“The Trump Administration should be creating more pathways to legal immigration, as opposed to limiting opportunities for immigrants to come to the United States,” Won said.
