States refusing to work with the federal government to enforce deportation orders under incoming President-elect Donald Trump will face the loss of federal funding, former deputy Department of Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli told Newsmax Sunday.
"Do they stop receiving money for their law enforcement organizations, or do they comply and cooperate?" Cuccinelli told Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend."
Last week, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, told MSNBC that she will not allow state police to help the incoming administration with mass deportations of immigrants from her state.
Likewise, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, another Democrat, said that his state will continue to be "a refuge for those whose rights are being denied elsewhere" and will continue protections for asylum seekers, as well as those seeking reproductive healthcare and for LGBTQ+ communities, reported NBC News.
"So you look at the governor of Massachusetts there and of course, she's defiant and Pritzker is defiant," said Cuccinelli Sunday. "That's lovely. What matters here is your cooperative, friendly Congress using the appropriations process to require state and local participation in all aspects of federal law enforcement, including immigration enforcement, as a condition of receiving money."
That means states must make a choice whether to refuse to assist in deportations or stop getting money from agencies like the Department of Education or for transportation and infrastructure, as well as for their law enforcement agencies, he said.
Cuccinelli pointed out that there were several lawsuits during Trump's first term in office that addressed most of the legal questions concerning immigration.
"So for example, the emergency use of military money for building a wall that's already been litigated, he can declare a national emergency and dip into that money on day one," he said. "The reason he can do that is because of all of the work done in the first term."
Cuccinelli added that the choice will be put up to states about cooperating with the federal deportation mandate.
"They don't have to cooperate, but they're going to have to give up federal money if they're going to avoid cooperation, and I can tell you as a former state legislator, there is nothing state legislators want to do less than give up federal money that other states are getting."
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