In 2018, Hoboken became a sanctuary city, officially “a fair and welcoming city,” to protect undocumented immigrants.

Now, with Donald Trump returning to the White House, this northern New Jersey city could be at risk due to Trump’s promise of mass deportation and cutting federal funding to sanctuary cities across the country.

This situation is a concern for Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, the son of immigrants from India, but he nonetheless says it will not deter him from serving all of his constituents.

“First and foremost, I think it’s important for the public to realize that this mayor of Hoboken, and I’m sure mayors across the state of New Jersey, are primarily concerned with local issues,” Bhalla said in an interview with NorthJersey.com. “Our municipal budget is often stretched thin, and we work very hard to make sure our budget provides important city resources to residents. And we don’t want those resources, those taxpayer dollars, diverted toward doing work that the federal government sees as a priority for itself.”

Sanctuary cities, while not an official or legal designation for a municipality, refer to municipalities that limit cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration agents. However, many do not officially use the term “sanctuary city” when passing resolutions to ban cooperation, instead opting for “just and welcoming city” or simply not using the term at all.

However, the president-elect, who begins his second term in office on Monday, has put his sights on these cities if they interfere with his mass deportation plans, which could deport some 11 million undocumented immigrants, including 470,000 residing in New Jersey.

Tom Homan, Trump’s appointee to the position of “border czar” — the person who will be responsible for carrying out and overseeing deportations — in a November interview with Fox News’ Mark Levin, threatened that the Trump administration will use a “very, very powerful weapon that Democrats, when they’re in power, use all the time against Republican, state and local administrations: federal funding.” This replicates Trump’s strategy of denying federal funding to sanctuary cities that he used in his first administration.

Bhalla recently spoke with NorthJersey.com about the city’s plans to deal with Trump’s persecution of undocumented people. NorthJersey.com also reached out by phone and email several times to the mayors of other municipalities in northern New Jersey considered sanctuary cities, including East Orange, Maplewood, Newark, Prospect Park, Jersey City and Union City, to discuss this issue.

Sanctuary cities push back

The federal government is deploying tactical law enforcement units operating on the southern border to participate in immigration enforcement in sanctuary cities, including Newark. Immigrant advocates protest the use of these units, as well as the latest expansion of the travel ban, in front of the Peter Rodino federal building in Newark on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020. Michael Karas/NorthJersey.com

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigration think tank based in Washington, D.C., there are approximately 170 sanctuary cities in the United States. Some of the major cities that are sanctuary cities include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco.

The movement for sanctuary cities dates back to the 1980s, when immigrants from El Salvador and Guatemala, experiencing war and government instability, came to the United States seeking asylum. In 1985, San Francisco passed a “city of refuge” resolution and ordinance prohibiting city funds and resources from being used for the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

In the Garden State, municipalities declaring by resolution or executive order not to cooperate with federal immigration authorities began right after Trump took office in his first term.

East Orange was the first to do so in December 2016. Maplewood followed in January 2017. Newark, Jersey City, Prospect Park, and Union City took similar steps in the same year. In January 2018, it was Hoboken’s turn with an executive order.

This was in response to Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric during his 2016 campaign and his subsequent actions in office. In several speeches during his presidential campaign, Trump has been asked to do so.

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