Illegal immigration is one of the biggest national security issues facing our country. Every year, countless people are harmed or killed by people who should not be in our country to begin with. Fortunately, President Donald Trump understands how big of an issue it is. Since taking office, his biggest focus has been securing our country’s borders and removing undocumented aliens.

Unsurprisingly, President Trump’s push to make our country safer has been overwhelmingly supported. More than half of the states in the U.S. have introduced legislation targeting people living in this country illegally.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, thirty-three states, starting with Texas, have recently passed legislation designed to address the problem of illegal immigration. Specifically, they found that “while Texas was the first state to pass a sweeping law focused on illegal immigration since the presidential election, at least thirty-two other states have introduced immigration enforcement bills.”

Out of the thirty-three states following Trump’s lead, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) reports that twenty-four are specifically targeting local governments that refuse to enforce immigration law. These so-called “sanctuary cities” endanger those living in the local community. This is because the law enforcement officials in these kinds of cities are largely liberal, and as a result, ignore detainer requests and refuse to enforce federal immigration laws. When immigration laws aren’t enforced, innocent people end up getting killed by people who shouldn’t be here in the first place.

For example, earlier this year, Oscar Perez-Rangel, a previously deported illegal alien, was arrested for sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl at an in-house daycare in Virginia five times over several months.

And back in 2015, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an undocumented immigrant, shot and killed Katie Steinle in San Francisco. Despite being deported five times, he kept sneaking back into the country thanks to our weak border. If we had done a better job enforcing our immigration laws, these criminals wouldn’t have had the opportunity to harm others.

Texas was the first state to take action against sanctuary cities. Shortly after Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez, whose jurisdiction includes Austin, Texas, announced that she would largely ignore detainer requests, Greg Abbott (R), the state’s Governor, withdrew $1.5 million in criminal justice grants from her county.

In support of Abbott’s intolerance of sanctuary cities, the Texas Senate passed SB 4, a bill criminalizing sanctuary cities, which the Governor subsequently signed. The legislation, authored by Senator Charles Perry (R-Lubbock), makes it illegal for senior officers to instruct their deputies to ignore immigration detainers and other federal law. If they do, they could be removed from office and thrown in jail.

Many Republicans emphatically supported SB 4. Rep. Charlie Geren (R-Fort Worth), the House Administration Committee Chairman and primary sponsor of the bill, stated, “the purpose of this legislation is to protect Texans from criminals who are here illegally. We are trying to make sure those bad actors are detained until we can determine their status.”

Tan Parker (R-Flower Mound), the Caucus Chairman, was also in favor of the legislation. He reasoned, “House Republicans have proven time and time again that we are committed to protecting the rule of law and keeping our communities safe. We will continue to work tirelessly to pass legislation that ensures the safety of Texans, such as Senate Bill 4.”

Other states soon followed in Texas’ footsteps. According to the NCSL, once SB 4 passed, “Georgia and Indiana enacted laws restricting postsecondary institutions from adopting sanctuary policies,” adding, “Mississippi went a step further, prohibiting local jurisdictions and postsecondary institutions from adopting or maintaining sanctuary policies.”

The authoritarian left must not be allowed to jeopardize the lives of others by protecting illegal immigrants. Legislators in every state should work to pass laws prohibiting sanctuary cities. Those who refuse need to be voted out of office.