Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., convened a hearing Tuesday to put sanctuary cities on trial, but the case ran into a fundamental problem: No one could agree on what a sanctuary city is or how many there are in the U.S.

Graham introduced a bill last month that would “end sanctuary city policies forever” by punishing state and local officials who don’t comply with Department of Homeland Security detainer requests for immigrants. He called Tuesday’s hearing in the midst of a DHS shutdown over Democrats’ demands that the agency place restrictions on federal immigration enforcement officers’ behavior. For the fourth time on Thursday, senators voted down a bill to fund DHS.

“To my Democratic colleagues, we’d love to join with you in a rational way to do some things to make ICE more professional,” Graham said during the Budget Committee hearing. “But what you need to do in return is work with us to eliminate one of the biggest magnets to future illegal immigration, which is sanctuary city policy.”

Graham said during the hearing that more than 200 cities and 12 states have adopted sanctuary policies and that these policies have been responsible for the release of 10,000 criminals who were later arrested for additional crimes. He did not cite a source for those figures.

What Is a Sanctuary City?

In June, the Justice Department posted, then quietly removed, a list of more than 500 cities and counties it had pegged as sanctuary jurisdictions after mayors, sheriffs and several cities pushed back. Its current list of sanctuary jurisdictions, last updated Aug. 5, 2025, includes 18 cities, 13 states and four counties.

The DOJ defines sanctuary cities as “jurisdictions that materially impede enforcement of federal immigration statutes and regulations,” Chad Wolf, former acting U.S. DHS secretary and chair of homeland security and immigration for the America First Policy Institute, said. By that definition, there are about 22 sanctuary jurisdictions across the U.S., he said.

Read the full article about sanctuary cities by Robyn Griggs Lawrence at Smart Cities Dive.