NEW YORK, United States (CMC) — The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella organisation representing over 200 immigrant and refugee groups in New York, has denounced President Donald Trump’s attack on sanctuary cities, saying that it threatens the safety of Caribbean and other immigrants in New York and the immigrant community in general.

A sanctuary city is a municipality that limits its cooperation with the United States (US) federal immigration enforcement.

Trump has signed an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to identify cities and states with “sanctuary jurisdictions”.

Cities and states identified on the list could face cuts in federal funding and possible criminal and civil suits for democratically enacted laws that promote public safety.

“President Trump’s latest executive order targeting sanctuary cities is designed to punish local governments for upholding their own public safety policies and refusing to collude with his mass deportation agenda,” NYIC President and Chief Executive Officer Murad Awawdeh told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on Wednesday.

“We have already seen retaliatory action in Rochester (New York), which has been sued by the Trump administration, and in NYC (New York City), where the federal government illegally revoked tens of millions of dollars in FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) funds,” he added.

Awawdeh said Caribbean and other immigrant New Yorkers are afraid to report crimes, send their kids to school or seek critical services because they fear deportation.

“This executive order is nothing more than an intimidation tactic designed to undermine the ability of local governments to enact the policies they believe best safeguard their communities, while strong-arming localities into becoming complicit with Trump’s attacks on immigrants,” he said, urging New York to “reject this threat to its constitutional right to pass local laws that serve our communities best”.

“New York must continue to uphold its ability to protect its workforce by passing the New York for All Act to ensure that no New Yorker has to live in fear when seeking help or opportunity,” Awawdeh said.

In reviewing Trump’s first 100 days, he noted a “flood the zone approach” in which the administration has issued over 25 presidential orders (executive orders, presidential memoranda and presidential proclamations) and taken hundreds of policy actions on immigration.

“These actions test the boundaries of executive power and the law, and as a result, litigation challenging the legality of these polices abound,” Awawdeh said. “Attacks on immigrants have come not only from the executive, but also from Congress with anti-immigrant bills and funding for the mass deportation agenda set by the administration.”

“Citizens have also been caught up in the chaos of the enforcement dragnet,” he added. “As the number of executive actions impacting immigrants have continued to grow since the first week’s executive orders (EO) described here, so have the consequences to all New Yorkers and pivotally to the foundations of democracy and rule of law in our country.”

Awawdeh said Trump’s policies have ranged from dramatically widened immigration enforcement in the US interior, increased collusion between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and local law enforcement, as well as with other federal agencies like the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to expand ICE’s reach.

“This has been coupled with expanded efforts to strip legal status from immigrants lawfully in the United States, including detaining visa and green card holders and efforts to attack birthright citizenship.”

He said organisations that serve immigrants and jurisdictions that have so-called “sanctuary” policies are also under attack, “creating a chilling effect on providing and accessing essential services”.