Sanctuary Penalty and Public Protection Act of 2025

The Sanctuary Penalty and Public Protection Act of 2025 would amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to create a new, publicly accessible database that identifies state and local governments whose laws or policies conflict with federal immigration enforcement. The database would be developed and maintained jointly by the Secretary of Homeland Security (through ICE) and the Attorney General, with updates at least quarterly. Jurisdictions listed as “sanctuary jurisdictions” would be barred from receiving federal funds after the date of enactment. The bill specifies that a jurisdiction can be listed if it has laws or practices that conflict with certain federal immigration provisions or that restrict cooperation with federal detainer requests, immigration interviews for incarcerated individuals, or related enforcement actions. The act also requires a clerical amendment to the IIRIRA table of contents to add this new section. In short, the bill seeks to pressure or penalize state and local governments that limit or restrict cooperation with federal immigration authorities by tying federal funding to the existence (or not) of such policies, and it creates a publicly available, regularly updated list of those jurisdictions.