WILMINGTON, N.C.— Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, on Sept. 21 announced a new plan to use federal power to outlaw so-called “sanctuary cities” that protect illegal immigrants from deportation.
Throughout Trump’s political career, immigration and border security have been key issues, and in 2024, a staple of his campaign rhetoric has been criticism of the Biden–Harris border policies.
During a campaign speech in Wilmington in the battleground state of North Carolina, Trump promised to advocate for Congress to ban sanctuary cities, a term used to describe municipalities that enact policies to shield illegal immigrants from federal immigration authorities, often by banning cooperation between local law enforcement and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“I will ask Congress to pass a law outlawing sanctuary cities nationwide, and we will bring down the full weight of the federal government on any jurisdiction that refuses to cooperate with ICE and ... Border Patrol,” Trump said. “They want to do their job, but they’re not allowed.
“Within two years, there will not be one single foreign criminal gang operating in North Carolina or anywhere else.”
The bill would have banned any “federal, state, or local government or any individual from prohibiting any government entity, official, or employee from complying with the immigration laws or cooperating with federal law enforcement of such laws.”
Trump has said that too many of those individuals are criminals and terrorists, an assertion that he repeated at his Wilmington rally. Since fiscal year 2022, the first full fiscal year of the Biden administration, 372 known or suspected terrorists have illegally crossed into the United States, according to CBP data. An additional 42,900 illegal immigrant criminals were arrested by Border Patrol during the same period.
In the three-year period during fiscal years 2018 to fiscal 2020, during the Trump administration, Border Patrol agents arrested 11 known or suspected terrorists who crossed U.S. borders illegally.
“Now, you have thousands of terrorists in our country from the worst countries. Here in North Carolina, migrant crime is totally out of control—encouraged by sanctuary jurisdictions, sanctuary cities all across your state,” Trump said. “I will get every migrant criminal out of our country, and I will get them out fast. We have no choice.”
Democrats have long criticized Trump’s rhetoric on immigration, which they see as being implicitly designed to stoke racial animus against illegal immigrants, many of whom are Hispanic or black.
Trump’s Democrat opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, has frequently criticized him for opposing bipartisan legislation in the Senate in February that would have imposed new restrictions on illegal crossings. She alleges that Trump compelled congressional Republicans to defeat the bill so that he could use the “border crisis” as a political argument in the election.
“He blocked the bill,” Harris said on Sept. 19 at an event with Oprah Winfrey. “Understand, even in the intervening months, what that bill would have done to give support to folks who care about this issue.”
Immigration remains a key issue for Trump’s base, however, with many rallygoers in Wilmington telling The Epoch Times that border security is their top issue in this election.
“I think they are [causing a lot of problems],” Andrew Fuentes Jr., a voter from Burlington, North Carolina, told The Epoch Times. He said that immigration was a top-of-mind concern for people in the state, which is considered one of the “swing states” that could decide the outcome of the election.
Trump won North Carolina in 2020 by a slim margin of 1.4 percent, or 74,481 votes.
“I think everybody should be documented,” Michelle Leskovitz, another attendee, told The Epoch Times. She said that immigration and the economy are her top concerns. “Send them back unless they are documented, not give them free health care [and] free school. It’s not right.”
Other voters in Wilmington shared these sentiments, which they say prompted them to support Trump.
“You let ... people in here, you don’t even know who they are—you don’t have a clue,” Edwin Robasco, a retired Teamsters union member and former Democrat, told The Epoch Times in downtown Wilmington.
“I don’t know how they’re gonna pay for them. ... You can’t just let people in and not help them,” he said. “[We’re in] a bad situation.”
