By mid-2025, at least 13 states had enacted or strengthened sanctuary policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, directly resisting the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign. New Jersey formalized its status as a sanctuary state with the Immigrant Trust Act limiting ICE cooperation, protecting data privacy, and securing access to public services. California strengthened SB 54 protections and passed SB 48 restricting ICE access to school campuses. Colorado enacted SB25-276 to protect undocumented immigrants from ICE detention and safeguard privacy.
Scope of State Resistance
More than 200 cities and counties, and at least a dozen states plus Washington, D.C., maintained some form of sanctuary policy by mid-2025. Key protections included:
Federal Retaliation
The Trump administration escalated pressure on sanctuary jurisdictions throughout 2025. On August 5, DOJ published a list of "sanctuary" jurisdictions — 13 states, 18 cities, and 4 counties — as required by executive order. The administration threatened funding cuts and deployed rhetoric framing sanctuary policies as aiding criminals, while the House Judiciary Committee advanced the "Shut Down Sanctuary Policies Act" in March 2026.
Capture Significance
The sanctuary state movement represented the most widespread form of organized state-level resistance to the Trump administration, extending beyond courtroom litigation into direct legislative defiance. The geographic pattern — concentrated in blue states but with some Republican-led jurisdictions also declining to cooperate with ICE — reflected a broader tension between federal authority and local governance that the administration attempted to resolve through fiscal coercion rather than legal persuasion.