Stephen A. Smith Calls Out Democrats For Creating Unnecessary ICE Confrontations With Sanctuary Cities

It's virtually impossible to escape news of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) these days. The shooting of a woman in Minnesota who hit an ICE agent with her car has unleashed yet another wave of anger from the left, furious that the Trump administration is enforcing federal immigration law. 

Perspectives on that specific shooting aside, it's obvious that many prominent politicians on the left and a massive chunk of liberals and progressives do not want any immigration laws enforced. Even though one of President Trump's biggest campaign promises was to enforce immigration laws, and he won the 2024 election by a sizable margin. 

The left-wing attitude, though, and the control the far left has over major cities, have created the rise of so-called "sanctuary cities." How these cities operate differs, but the general idea is that they refuse to help ICE enforce the law, they ignore detainers or other federal requests, give out benefits to illegal aliens, and will not allow local police officers to assist. These insane, indefensible policies have created the chaos and street confrontations that have grown throughout 2025 and into 2026. And even Stephen A. Smith seems to have realized it. 

Smith took a caller on a recent show, who pointed out that under previous administrations, there was "cooperation" between federal immigration officers and local jurisdictions. And he acknowledged that Democrats haven't been honest about how they've handled working with ICE. 

"…You brought up a very poignant issue that I haven’t heard one single caller address in weeks about ICE," Smith said. "You spoke to the level of cooperation between the administration and the White House, the federal government, and local and state law enforcement. There was a level of cooperation.

"The question is, why has that cooperation not existed? And my point is that’s a huge, huge question. Because if the level of cooperation that no longer exists… started in 2016 when Trump came into office… then that means that either Trump is engaging in a whole bunch of stuff that is considered unconstitutional, or the local and state officials in sanctuary cities specifically... are being impediments to laws being executed and exercised."

No kidding.

Stephen A. Smith speaks onstage during the 2025 ForbesBLK Summit. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images)

Stephen A. Says Trump Isn't All To Blame For ICE Confrontations

He wasn't done there. Smith continued, explaining that he doesn't agree with local governments ignoring immigration laws. Even though he claims not to trust the Trump administration, he acknowledges that these policies seem to have sprung up overnight to combat Trump specifically, which shows that the street confrontations are a result of Democratic Party policies.

"Therefore, we'll be in a position to really, really point the finger of accountability where it belongs. Right now, we all believe it’s Trump because we see the optics, and it doesn’t look good," he said. "If, however, we’re able to discover that this stuff is being instigated by folks on the left… that’s a different argument."

"I don’t like the fact that local and state governments get the right to usurp federal authorities and just ignore the laws that they want to ignore… If it was aimed specifically for the Trump administration, as opposed to Obama, etc… we’ve got ourselves a problem."

That is, of course, precisely what's happened. Democrats have made opposition to Trump their sole and only focus, and immigration has become an increasingly large part of their agenda. Why? Because illegal immigration benefits their party. Opening the border has propped up the number of electoral votes and congressional seats held in states like California. Children born in the US to illegal aliens then become citizens, who, the left believes, will be reliable Democratic Party voters. Sanctuary cities in blue states are designed to attract illegal aliens, boosting their population in census counts. 

The confrontation in Minnesota, which unfortunately resulted in a woman dying, would never have happened if Minneapolis and Tim Walz hadn't prevented its police officers from even being present where ICE is operating. Instead of providing crowd control and allowing federal authorities to do their jobs quickly and safely, police don't get involved because of sanctuary policies. Which is why red states have seen either zero incidents like this, or minimal ones relative to the disasters we've seen in California, Minnesota and elsewhere. 

Yes, Democrats are being dishonest about this, because they can't take responsibility and admit mistakes. And because they believe their party's future relies on bringing illegal aliens into blue states. Credit to Stephen A. for being willing to acknowledge that, or even come close to acknowledging it.