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are needed for a chamber majority. Since Senate Democrats can successfully block legislation <br />using the filibuster (which requires 60 votes to overcome), Republican Leaders will need to work <br />together with Democrats to advance major pieces of legislation, including transportation and <br />infrastructure financing. <br />Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States on January 20. Since then, <br />President Trump has continued to issue actions consistent with his campaign platform in Donald <br />J. Trump's Contract with the American Voter. Notably, on January 31, President Trump <br />announced his nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, Judge Neil Gorsuch, a federal <br />appeals court judge in Denver, Colorado. If confirmed by the Senate, Gorsuch is expected to play <br />a conservative role on the court. <br />There are a number of issues pending at the federal level that could impact Santa Ana: <br />Immilzration <br />Sanctuary Cities <br />On January 25, the President issued an executive order (EO), which directs the AG and the <br />Secretary of DHS to eliminate federal funding for sanctuary cities. Under the EO, sanctuary <br />cities is defined as "...willfully refus[ing] to comply with 8 U.S.C. 1373." According to this <br />statute, a sanctuary policy is "sending to, or receiving from, the Immigration and Naturalization <br />Service information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any <br />individual." This same EO also empowered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) <br />to enforce the laws, identify criminal aliens, triple ICE enforcement and removal <br />operations/agents, create a victim's advocacy office for victims of crime by illegal aliens, collect <br />unpaid fines from illegal immigrants, and increase transparency. While it is unclear how the <br />Administration will define "federal funding", we expect the President to attempt to defund <br />"sanctuary cities" in some way. <br />Defunding legislation may need a legislative vehicle—either stand-alone legislation or <br />provisions added to an appropriations bill. If Trump takes the stand-alone legislative route, a bill <br />could look similar to previous congressional efforts to withhold federal discretionary funding <br />from sanctuary cities. This includes legislation sponsored by Sen. Pat Toomey (R -PA) intended <br />to strip congressional funding from sanctuary cities, including law enforcement grant programs <br />and Community Development Block Grants for affordable housing, anti -poverty programs and <br />infrastructure development. House Republicans have also made legislative attempts to punish <br />sanctuary cities. Last year, the House passed, mostly along party lines, Enforce the Law for <br />Sanctuary Cities Act, which would deny some federal funding for jurisdictions that prohibit law <br />enforcement from asking people about their citizenship or immigration status. <br />However, denying all federal funding to sanctuary cities would be difficult to implement, as well <br />as raise serious constitutional issues. It is possible that Republicans may specifically target <br />certain discretionary grants—such as those from Department of Justice—which provide <br />important funding support to emergency services, including police and firefighters. Moreover, <br />since Republicans do not have enough votes to overcome the Democratic -led filibuster, any <br />immigration legislation will need bipartisan input. <br />0 <br />l[%J_�_G_7 <br />