Krauthammer: Trump 'within his rights' to withhold funding from sanctuary cities

Conservative author and commentator Charles Krauthammer believes President-elect Donald Trump can and should refuse federal funding for sanctuary cities if they continue to harbor illegal immigrants.

"I think Trump would be within his rights to withhold funds, and he should," Krauthammer said on Fox News' "Special Report" Wednesday.

"And the Democrats are making a big bet — and a mistaken one — if they decide that they're going to defy the federal government and what seems to be common sense: control your borders," Krauthammer added.

Trump previously vowed in his contract with the American voter to "cancel all federal funding to sanctuary cities." But in the days following Trump's election, a number of mayors from the nation's largest cities, including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Denver, have vowed to keep their cities as illegal immigrant safe havens despite pressure from a Trump administration.

“We are not going to do the job of the federal government. What we are going to do is make sure we remain an inclusive city,” Denver Mayor Michael Hancock told the Denver Post.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he doubts that Trump will actually carry through with refusing federal funding to sanctuary cities, telling the Chicago Tribune, "I don't believe they'll do it, because that would mean every major city in the United States would be targeted, and that's not what an administration will do."

New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio went to Trump Tower on Wednesday to meet with the president-elect. Speaking to reporters after his one-on-one, DeBlasio said he told Trump that many New Yorkers have expressed fear of the Republican's proposed policies.

“I tried to express to him how much fear there is in communities all over this city, a whole range of people in the city and in this country that are fearful," DeBlasio said, according to the New York Post. “I expressed to him that I knew we had very real philosophical differences, but that I was ready to work on these issues and represent the needs of New York City."