President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) gave hundreds of millions in American taxpayer money to sanctuary cities, those jurisdictions protecting illegal aliens from arrest and deportation, in 2021, new data reveals.
Federal data compiled by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) shows that in 2021, Biden’s first year in office, the DOJ awarded about $300 million to 11 sanctuary states and 86 sanctuary counties and cities that refuse to turn criminal illegal aliens over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency for arrest and deportation.
The taxpayer money was funneled to the sanctuary jurisdictions through three DOJ grant programs: the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), the Byrne Justice Assistance Grants (JAG), and the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program.
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CIS researchers Jessica Vaughan and Nathan Desautels wrote:
The awards to sanctuaries represented more than 40 percent of the available funding under these programs. Sanctuary jurisdictions are receiving this funding despite having adopted policies to hinder cooperation between local law enforcement agencies and federal immigration authorities. As a result, the federal government is subsidizing agencies that may be violating federal law and undermining public safety. [Emphasis added]
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The majority of SCAAP and Byrne JAG program funding went to sanctuary jurisdictions in 2021; 58 percent of the SCAAP funding and 68 percent of the Byrne JAG funding went to sanctuaries, while 28 percent of the COPS funding went to sanctuaries. [Emphasis added]
In particular, Chicago, Illinois; San Francisco, California; Washington, DC; San Bernardino County, California; and Nassau County, New York were among the top sanctuary counties and cities in the nation to secure tens of millions in DOJ funding in 2021.
Meanwhile, sanctuary states were the biggest sanctuary beneficiaries of DOJ grants.
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Localities in the sanctuary state of California, for instance, scored nearly $83 million while Colorado secured more than $6.1 million, Connecticut got $7.1 million, Illinois got nearly $7 million, Massachusetts got more than $11 million, New Jersey secured nearly $16 million, and New York got more than $26.7 million, among others.
Across the United States, there are about 150 sanctuary counties and cities.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.