Immigrants
by Gianmarco Katz
What’s the Problem
Immigrants make up more than 13 percent of the US population. They are an indelible part of our nation’s social and economic fabric. Yet in 2025, the federal government doubled down on a punitive approach to immigration — framing migrants not as neighbors or workers, but threats. Under a second Trump administration, executive orders have renewed mass deportation, stripped legal protections from asylum seekers, and emboldened local police to collaborate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Executive Orders issued in early 2025 — such as the “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” order and the attempt to revoke birthright citizenship — have weaponized federal power and infringed on basic rights. These policies are not minor reforms; they reflect a larger political shift that delegitimizes the very presence and value of immigrants in American life.
Despite federal efforts, local leaders can and must take action to support immigrant communities. Municipalities have the power to establish sanctuary city policies, employment protections, and equitable access to public services. Moreover, municipalities should actively include immigrants in community-building efforts.
What are People Currently Doing?
Sanctuary Cities
Sanctuary city ordinances or resolutions vary significantly across jurisdictions. The ability of sanctuary cities to protect and serve their community members depends largely on state law, not just federal enforcement attempts. It is critical for local officials to fully understand what is possible and the policies their community currently has in place. Sanctuary policies are constitutional, improve public safety and trust, and help protect immigrants from unnecessary detention and deportation without increasing crime. Inclusive immigration practices are linked to safer communities, contradicting claims that stricter enforcement improves public safety (see ProGov21’s Home Rule roadmap for more on preemption).
Prominent sanctuary cities include San Francisco, Seattle, Manhattan, and Chicago. There are also smaller localities like Beaverton, OR and Evanston, IL. Sanctuary policies continue to evolve, with states like Illinois, California, and Oregon maintaining strict limits on local cooperation. The Immigrant Legal Resource Center provides guides to end local collaboration with ICE and protect immigrants from discrimination and deportation. Crucially, sanctuary policies are complex and nuanced, so comprehensive staff training on the limits of federal immigration laws and local expectations is essential to effective enforcement.
Working Conditions
Immigrants make up 17 percent of the US workforce and drive growth in many local economies. However, large employers often exploit the precarious status of immigrants—and increasingly immigrant children—to avoid minimum wage and workplace safety laws. Undocumented and immigrant communities are exploited in the workplace via compounded challenges: discriminatory systems, language barriers, limited access to health care, social isolation, and fear mongering narratives. Local governments must act to prevent a two-tiered labor market designed to extract without protecting. (See ProGov21’s Job Quality, Wages, and Benefits roadmap for more on local labor policy).
Municipalities can prevent local employers from engaging in a race to the bottom by establishing local labor standards offices and creating partnerships with community organizations to enforce applicable labor laws and passing laws regulating working conditions, preventing discrimination and misconduct in the workplace.
Access to Public Services
Rather than treating immigrant access through piecemeal solutions, progressive localities can develop cohesive programs for welcoming and integrating migrant and refugee communities that bundle municipal IDs, language access, driver’s licenses, public service accessibility, and legal protections as essential components of community governance. Municipal governments can improve inclusion using ordinances or executive orders to ensure that all residents have access to city services regardless of immigration status. Hartford and Seattle ensured that municipal services are available to all residents, regardless of immigration status, Columbus, OH expanded services for, and protected migrants from deportation through executive action. Welcoming America produced a guide on welcoming and integrating humanitarian refugees with a diverse set of experiences and backgrounds and guidance for creating welcoming local infrastructures through relationship building with community organizations.
Official identification is a basic necessity in American society, but many people struggle to get access to state-issued IDs. Municipal ID cards make it easier for people to do everyday things like cash a check, rent an apartment, or report a crime. Cities like New York and San Francisco have started municipal ID programs that are open to all residents, including immigrants. This SiX Action guide examines programs enabling immigrants to qualify for drivers’ licenses. Any government agency that directly or indirectly provides information, programs, or services to the public should be required to annually survey the language needs of their actual and potential audience and provide for accessible oral and written language services. Examples of language access resources include legislation from Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Long Beach. See also Saint Paul’s and Madison’s language access plans, as well as this guide to improving language access in early education.
Taking it to the Next Level
Given the rapidly changing legal landscape, local governments should reach out to their communities and facilitate know-your rights trainings and informational campaigns. These ensure people are informed about what to do when approached by ICE, how to navigate deportation proceedings, and where to access legal assistance. Technical assistance and trainings like those offered by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), and National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) provide tools for community members to assert their rights during raids or encounters with immigration enforcement. Meanwhile, local governments can strengthen due process by investing in legal defense funds and universal representation programs to ensure immigrants facing deportation have access to legal counsel regardless of income or status.
Finally, the rescission of federal protections for “sensitive locations” has opened college campuses, schools, and places of worship to immigration enforcement, making educational institutions flashpoints for deportation efforts. Local governments and school administrators must act quickly to prevent ICE from treating campuses as open enforcement zones. Colleges can designate nonpublic areas, restrict data sharing under FERPA, and partner with legal aid organizations to protect students and staff. School districts must treat K-12 institutions as vital sanctuary spaces by refusing to share student information with ICE, limiting data collection on immigration status, training staff on rights-based protocols, and ensuring that no child is denied access to education or school-based services due to fear of deportation.
Allies, Advocates, and Advisors
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