Here are Some of the Governors and Local Leaders Taking Action to Resist Trump’s Mass Deportation Agenda

A number of Democratic governors and local leaders from coast to coast are beginning to take action to resist Donald Trump’s violent mass deportation agenda and protect undocumented families in their communities and states, including by strengthening safer city ordinances, preventing the use of local resources in mass raids and family separation, and launching the kinds of legal challenges that were often successful during Trump's first term in office and blocked some of his administration’s worst actions. 

CALIFORNIA

In California, where Democrats hold supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature, Governor Gavin Newsom has called for a special legislative session to “safeguard California values and fundamental rights in the face of an incoming Trump administration,” including bolstering protections for immigrant families. The state could become a top priority of the incoming Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda, because it is home to the largest undocumented population in the U.S.

“The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack — and we won’t sit idle,” Gov. Newsom said. “California has faced this challenge before, and we know how to respond. We are prepared, and we will do everything necessary to ensure Californians have the support and resources they need to thrive.”

In 2017, the state passed the landmark California Values Act, which curtails cooperation between local police and federal deportation officials and works to ensure that state resources are not used to enable a mass deportation agenda. Following Trump’s reelection, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass pledged to expedite a “Sanctuary City” ordinance that “prohibits city resources, property or staff from being used for federal immigration enforcement efforts,” KCAL News reported. The city’s police chief, Jim McDonnell, has also stated that his department’s resources will not be used to assist in deportations. “I want to be unequivocal,” he added. “LAPD will protect LA’s immigrant community. We will not cooperate with mass deportations.” 

COLORADO AND ILLINOIS

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have announced that they’re leading a nonpartisan initiative “to protect the state-level institutions of democracy, leveraging their unique legislative, budgetary, executive, and administrative powers to deliver results for the American people.” Among pressing issues that the Governors Safeguarding Democracy (GSD) initiative are zeroing in on are mass deportation threats, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

“At this critical moment in our history, we must unite to protect the foundations of our democracy and ensure our institutions withstand threats and persevere in their mission to improve the lives of our people,” said GSD co-chair Gov. Pritzker. “Governors Safeguarding Democracy will serve as a powerful force in state-level efforts to ensure that our democracy lives up to our ideals and thrives for generations to come.” Both governors have already taken notable steps to welcome immigrant residents in past years. 

In Illinois in 2019, Gov. Pritzker signed legislation making the state the first in the nation to ban private immigration detention facilities. “In the face of attempts to stoke fear, exploit division, and force families into the shadows, we are taking action,” he said at the time. “We will not allow private entities to profit off of the intolerance of this president.” Pritzker also signed legislation that “statutorily prohibits” local police from participating in the flawed 287(g) program. While just 34 sheriff’s departments remained a part of the policy when former President Obama left office, it increased five-fold after Trump began his first term.

In remarks following Trump’s reelection, Gov. Pritzker forcefully said he would continue to protect his residents. “To anyone who intends to come take away the freedom, and opportunity, and dignity of Illinoisans, I would remind you that a happy warrior is still a warrior,” he said. “You come for my people, you come through me.”

In Colorado, Democratic lawmakers have also previously passed a slew of bills to protect the immigrant communities. In addition to blocking local governments from jailing immigrants from ICE, the state has “banned local law enforcement from arresting or jailing someone on the basis of a civil immigration detainer; banned ICE from arresting people on courthouse grounds; allowed non-citizens to obtain driver’s licenses; and opened state housing benefits to all residents, regardless of immigration status,” Bolts reported in 2023.

Following Trump’s reelection, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said the city would “not participate” in mass deportation of Colorado families and that he believes “a great majority of the country would not partner on something like that,” The Denver Post reported. Colorado cities could become a main target of Trump’s second administration, after he made Aurora central to his vile and anti-immigrant closing messaging, including falsely claiming the city “had been ‘conquered’ by Venezuelan gangs” and that “that he’d use a 1798 law to deport them,” as the New Republic reported.

MASSACHUSETTS

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey responded “absolutely not” when asked if Massachusetts police would aid in mass deportations, and added that the mass roundups of immigrant families in the state would hurt economically and morally. “In terms of mass deportations, to me, it’s just outrageous,” Gov. Healey said. “15 million people in this country, some of whom lived here most of their lives? I think it’s a really stupid idea and I think it’s heartbreaking for so many. It was really astounding to hear [incoming Trump border czar Thomas Homan] talk the solution to be that we’ll deport entire families.” 

Gov. Healey also said the new Trump administration should expect litigation, saying “that the key here is that every tool in the toolbox is going to be used to protect our citizens, to protect our residents and protect our states, and certainly to hold the line on democracy and the rule of law as a basic principle.” MassLive reported that Healey previously “carved a prominent role challenging” Trump in court during her tenure as the state’s attorney general, suing his administration nearly 100 times, including over the discriminatory Muslim ban and the family separation policy.

Massachusetts voters have also supported pro-immigrant measures despite fierce GOP opposition, in 2022 maintaining a law that makes roads safer by allowing undocumented immigrants to drive legally. During that same election cycle, voters in Barnstable County also cast their ballots in favor of eliminating the final 287(g) agreement between ICE and a sheriff’s office in the commonwealth by electing as sheriff Democratic candidate Donna Buckley, who ran on ending the agreement, which she promptly did on her first day in office.

NEW JERSEY

While Gov. Phill Murphy struck some conciliatory tones in his remarks following the 2024 election, he also cautioned that he “stood up fiercely” to defend New Jersey’s immigrant communities during Trump’s first term and was prepared to do so again. “Our commitment, again, is not to any person or party, but to the people of New Jersey and to the rule of law,” Gov. Murphy said. “And it is precisely for that reason — as we respect the peaceful transition of power — that, if there is any attack on the Garden State or on any of its communities from Washington, I will fight back with every fiber of my being.”

That could include passage of the Immigrant Trust Act, which has been strongly supported by immigrant communities and advocates in the state and would build on the Immigrant Trust Directive issued by former state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal issued in 2018 limiting the types of voluntary assistance that local policy may provide to federal immigration authorities. “The fear of deportation or family separation due to engaging with public service providers … is a reality shared by one in four New Jersey residents who are immigrants,” said the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. “This lack of trust in the protection of their sensitive information further deepens their hesitancy to interact with these programs, despite having the right to access them.”

Earlier this year, Gov. Murphy signed historic legislation into place that would give domestic workers the same workplace rights as others in the state, and includes penalties for employers who retaliate against their employees, which could become a critical tool if workers become afraid of reporting abuses due to deportation ramifications.

NEW YORK

Following the 2024 election, New York leaders said their offices had already been preparing and putting plans in place in case of a possible Trump victory. Gov. Kathy Hochul said the newly-announced Empire State Freedom Initiative, which convened prior to Election Day, was focusing “on key areas where New York State and New Yorkers are most likely to face threats from a Trump Administration, including reproductive rights, civil rights, immigration, gun safety, and the environment, among other issues.” 

Like several other state attorneys general, Letitia James said she would continue to be stalwart in the courts, having sued the first Trump administration nearly 100 times.  

“As Attorney General, I will always stand up to protect New Yorkers and fight for our rights and values,” she said. “My office has been preparing for a potential second Trump administration, and I am ready to do everything in my power to ensure our state and nation do not go backwards. During his first term, we stood up for the rule of law and defended against abuses of power and federal efforts to harm New Yorkers … We are ready to fight back again.”

New York City, home to roughly 400,000 undocumented New Yorkers, has one of the strongest safer city policies in the nation, and legislation passed by the NYC Council in 2017 made it “illegal for the NYPD, or any city agency, to engage in, or assist federal authorities with, immigration enforcement.” Incoming border czar Thomas Homan has already issued a threat over the policy, claiming that “if we can’t get assistance in New York City, we may have to double the agents we send in New York City. We are going to do the job. Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals.” New York City Mayor Eric Adams has offered conflicted messaging on the policy, The City reported.

RHODE ISLAND

Rhode Island has a small yet vibrant immigrant community that the state’s leaders have vowed to protect. Both Gov. Dan McKee and Providence Mayor Brett Smiley have said they “do not back Trump’s plans for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants,” including spending local resources on targeting the state’s families, WJAR reports.

"Our state police is there to protect the safety of the people of our state, they're not ICE agents and we're not going to be spending energy outside of the scope of the work that they should be doing," said Gov. McKee. "Many of us, myself included, are not happy with the result. We have many Rhode Islanders who are happy with the result. My job is to figure out how to do what's best for the state of Rhode Island, and that's what I'm going to be working on." Smiley, mayor of the state’s most populous city, backed the mayor’s statement.

“Our policy is that the Providence Police Department are not immigration officers. They have not been, and they will not be,” he said. “If you are going about your business, otherwise being a law-abiding citizen just trying to make a better life for you and your family, you have no reason to be concerned here in Providence.”

WASHINGTON STATE

Called one of Trump’s “most litigious foes” by KUOW, Gov.-elect Bob Ferguson has vowed to continue the legal fights he led as the state’s attorney general, when he challenged the first Trump administration’s Muslim ban and other harmful efforts in court. Like Attorney General James in New York and other leaders, Gov.-elect Ferguson said his team had been preparing for a possible Trump win, including going “line by line through Project 2025.”

Gov.-elect Ferguson named the Trump administration’s threats against the DACA as one of his top concerns. As state attorney general, Ferguson helped lead the lawsuit challenging the first Trump administration’s rescission of the popular and successful DACA program in 2017. In 2020, U.S. Supreme Court would eventually find the administration's recission unlawful by a slim 5-4 majority. The following year, outgoing Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee signed into place law that would phase out the use of for-profit jails in the state by the end of this year. However, legal fights “have undermined” efforts to close the notorious Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, the lone for-profit prison in the state, and one of the largest in the nation.

“We will be prepared for whatever comes and do everything in our power to defend the rights of Washingtonians, the people of this great state,” Gov.-elect Ferguson said according to Washington State Standard, “and to make sure that when there is an illegal action, that we look very closely to see if we can bring a case.”

This list will be updated, HERE.