Donald Trump Signals Shift on Deportations: Feds Will Enter Sanctuary Cities Only If Mayors “Ask” and “Invited”

President Donald J. Trump signaled a major adjustment to his deportation enforcement strategy during an interview with NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas that aired Wednesday evening, just days after mounting public backlash over ICE operations in Minneapolis and Operation Metro Surge triggered mass protests and two deaths.

The President revealed that moving forward, federal immigration enforcement will largely enter Democrat-run Sanctuary Cities only if the mayors of those crumbling jurisdictions explicitly “ask” for help and “invite” them in.

Tom Llamas:
I want to be clear, because it sounds like there is a shift in immigration enforcement here—that there’s going to be a shift after Minneapolis. What should Americans expect going forward?

President Trump:
Well, one thing I say to my people: we do a good job, and we don’t get credit for it. I say they have to ask, and they have to say “please.” When a city is going to ask the mayor or the governor, I don’t want to go and force ourselves into a city, even if their numbers are terrible.

Like, for instance, I got a call from Jeff Landry, governor of Louisiana. He said, “We have a big problem. Could you go in and help us with—well, let’s see—certain sections.” I mean, to be honest with you, certain sections of the state beyond their famous, beautiful city—certain sections of the state.

We have done not only New Orleans, we’ve done a really great job in Louisiana. But I was called. I want to be called. Chicago—we could solve the Chicago crime.

Tom Llamas:
On that question, which cities are you headed to next?

President Trump:
We have five cities that we’re looking at very strongly, but we want to be invited. We will sometimes call the governors and say, “Are you going to invite us?”

Tom Llamas:
Are they cities like Chicago, Philadelphia? Are these the cities?

President Trump:
We could straighten out the crime in Chicago. We’ve already brought it down 25% just by being there. We could have Chicago be a safe city, just like D.C. is a safe city—just like all of these places that we’ve gone to.

I look forward to it. I didn’t campaign on that. I campaigned on law and order, but I didn’t think I’d be going into individual cities and making them safe.

Tom Llamas:
Anything else you can tell us about the five cities—the five cities—anything else, so Americans are ready?

President Trump:
We’ll be announcing them very quickly, but we could do something. As an example, I was called by people in San Francisco. They said, “Please, we have a Democrat mayor. He’s trying very hard. You have friends of mine that live there. It’s got crime problems. Would you let him do the job and not come in? Let’s see how it works.”

I said, “Look, I can do it much quicker—much faster.” Don’t forget, we remove criminals. We took over 2,000 hardcore criminals out of Washington, D.C. If we didn’t do that—2% of the people create 90% of the crime. Think of that: 2%.

So you have criminals—it’s over and over again. Two percent create 90% of the crime. We took out 2,000 people—more than 2,000 people—out of Washington, D.C., and we now have a safe city.

WATCH:

NOW – Trump says he is adjusting his mass deportations policy to only go into cities if the mayors or governors “ask” and “say please,” adding, “I don’t want to go and force ourselves into a city, even if their numbers are terrible.” pic.twitter.com/xji3FfEl42

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) February 5, 2026

The administration’s earlier hardline approach, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, saw nearly 3,000 federal immigration agents deployed to Minnesota, where law enforcement clashed with local residents and sparked public outrage following the shootings of protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti by immigration officers.

In response to criticism, Border Czar Tom Homan announced that roughly 700 officers would be withdrawn from Minneapolis, with the White House suggesting this adjustment was part of better cooperation with local officials

By shifting to an “invitation-only” model for certain interior enforcement operations, President Trump is effectively calling the bluff of every Sanctuary City mayor in America.

For years, Democrats have claimed that federal agents make their cities less safe. Now, Trump is giving them exactly what they asked for: a withdrawal of federal help. When crime rates skyrocket and the “migrant crime wave” continues to drain their resources, they will have no one to blame but themselves.

If Mayor Jacob Frey in Minneapolis or Mayor Brandon Johnson in Chicago want to protect criminal illegal aliens over their own law-abiding citizens, President Trump is going to let them own the consequences. The moment they realize they’ve lost control, they will have to come crawling to the White House to ask for the help they publicly rejected.

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