Just weeks before President Trump's February 1st deadline to cut federal funding to sanctuary cities, Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan signed a defiant executive order Monday explicitly barring city employees from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Ryan's move comes as the Trump administration prepares to slash federal payments to municipalities that harbor illegal immigrants—a cornerstone promise of the President's second-term agenda to secure America's borders and end the chaos of the Biden years.
The Buffalo mayor's executive order prohibits any coordination between city workers and federal immigration enforcement, effectively turning the city into a safe haven for those who entered our country illegally. This isn't just administrative policy—it's an open act of rebellion against the will of the American people who voted overwhelmingly for Trump's immigration enforcement agenda.
Taxpayers Footing the Bill for Lawlessness
What's particularly galling is that hardworking American taxpayers are being forced to subsidize cities that actively undermine federal immigration law. Buffalo receives millions in federal funding annually, money that comes directly from the pockets of law-abiding citizens who expect their government to enforce the border.
President Trump made it crystal clear earlier this month: starting February 1st, sanctuary cities will face the financial consequences of their lawless policies. No more blank checks for municipalities that prioritize illegal immigrants over American citizens.
"We will not be making any payments to cities that offer sanctuary to illegal immigrants," Trump declared, delivering on yet another campaign promise.
Ryan's timing couldn't be more tone-deaf. While American families struggle with inflation, crime, and the ongoing fallout from four years of Biden's open-border disaster, Buffalo's mayor chooses to protect those who shouldn't be here in the first place.
This executive order represents everything wrong with the radical left's approach to immigration: feelings over facts, virtue signaling over public safety, and political posturing over the rule of law.
The question now is whether Buffalo's residents are prepared to watch their city lose vital federal funding to protect Mayor Ryan's woke immigration policies. Come February 1st, they'll find out exactly what their mayor's virtue signaling costs them.