Democrats slammed President Trump on Sunday for threatening to release illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities to retaliate against political foes, accusing him of employing migrants as “pawns” and of overstepping his presidential powers.

“The president has no right to spend money appropriated by Congress for other purposes to ship immigrants all over the country,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The New York Democrat said immigrants have a right to go through the process of seeking asylum.

“This is just – nor is it right for the president to use immigrants or people who are claiming political asylum as pawns in a fight against political opponents,” Nadler said. “He shouldn’t use them as what he imagines as retribution to political opponents in various areas. It’s another misuse of presidential power, against the law.”

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said Trump is not trying to find a solution to the immigration crisis but only of advancing a ploy to motivate his political base before the 2020 presidential elections.

“My understanding is it’s not legal,” Cardin said on “Fox News Sunday.” “There’s no budget for that purpose. This is a clearly political move for the president. He’s using the immigrants as pawns in his political game of chess.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the head of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Trump sanctuary city plan is aimed at creating “manufactured chaos” at the border.

“Before Donald Trump took office, we had a situation that was manageable — we had spikes, but it also went down. But what we have now is a constant pushing of the system so that it doesn’t work,” Thompson (D-Miss.) said on ABC News’ “This Week.” “Rather than being punitive, the president has to step up and provide real leadership, which he’s failed to do on immigration.”

After reports said the Trump administration had twice considered and rejected a plan to bus illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities to retaliate against his political foes, the president embraced the idea on Friday.

“If the Radical Left Democrats all of a sudden don’t want the Illegal Migrants in their Sanctuary Cities (no more open arms), why should others be expected to take them into their communities?,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

On Saturday, he said his administration has “the absolute legal right to have apprehended illegal immigrants transferred to Sanctuary Cities.”