The Catch and Release program, birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens, and sanctuary cities have continued operating, unaltered, despite repeated opposition from President Trump.

On Catch and Release

During his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Trump denounced the Catch and Release program where illegal aliens and border crossers are routinely released into the interior of the U.S. after being apprehended by Border Patrol.

“We want to end Catch and Release. We catch them, we realize they are a criminal, we have to release them,” Trump said. “Think of this, they come onto our land … we now have to take them through a massive court trial. Who does this? Other countries say ‘Get the hell out of here.'”

So we catch them, we talk to them, if they’re criminals or if they’re not we release them and say ‘Come back for a hearing in front a judge’ … not my fault, I inherited this mess but we’re fixing it,” Trump continued.

The Catch and Release program, though, was expanded by Trump last month when he signed a spending bill approved by Republicans and Democrats in Congress and strongly supported by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, insiders have told Breitbart News.

The bipartisan spending package Trump signed greatly expands the Catch and Release of border crossers and illegal aliens, codifying into law that border crossers be bused into the interior of the U.S. where they are released with the promise that they are monitored.

Trump’s expansion of Catch and Release reduced the detention space that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) now has to detain border crossers and expanded the “ATD” program that releases foreign nationals into the country with ankle monitors.

About 99 percent of border crossers and illegal aliens who are put into ATD programs and released into the interior of the U.S. are never deported.

On Birthright Citizenship

Trump’s CPAC speech also included his denouncing of the country’s birthright citizenship policy where the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens and foreign nationals are immediately granted American citizenship regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

“We have people pouring in from not just the southern border and Mexico, but from China,” Trump said. “They have a baby on our land. The baby becomes a citizen, welcome to the United States … and then the parents come in because the baby is a citizen. This is crazy. They used to call them ‘anchor babies’ but they don’t use that term anymore because it doesn’t sound nice.”

While Trump denounces birthright citizenship, he has yet to sign the executive order ending the policy which he vowed to sign in October of last year.

The U.S.-born children of illegal aliens are commonly known as “anchor babies,” as they “anchor” their illegal alien and noncitizen parents in the U.S. when they are granted immediate birthright citizenship.

There are at least 4.5 million anchor babies in the country, a population that exceeds the total number of annual American births, as about 300,000 anchor babies are born every year, exceeding the total number of American births in 48 states. Currently, the U.S. and Canada are the only developed nations in the world that offer unrestricted birthright citizenship.

The total number of anchor babies in 10 states is now four times the total population of Boston, Massachusettes — where about 685,000 residents live. The anchor baby population in these ten states is also more than six times the population of Miami, more than five times the population of Wyoming, and about 44 times the population of Portland, Maine.

The Supreme Court has never explicitly ruled that the children of illegal aliens must be granted automatic citizenship and many legal scholars dispute the idea. Trump promised last year to end birthright citizenship through executive action, but the order has yet to be revealed or signed.

On Sanctuary Cities

A routine talking point from Trump is his disdain for sanctuary cities and sanctuary states like California which shield criminal illegal aliens from being arrested and deported by ICE. In his speech at CPAC, Trump said he wanted to secure the southern border, adding “this includes shutting down sanctuary cities.”

While the Trump administration has made some progress on this promise, forcing a handful of former sanctuary cities to drop their policy, the majority of pro-illegal alien jurisdictions have continued receiving Justice Department grant money.

Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions had started the administration’s effort to end sanctuary cities nationwide by suing the state of California for protecting illegal aliens and attempting to strip federal grant money from sanctuary cities.

Sessions had sent letters to 29 sanctuary cities, warning that they would be stripped of federal grant money if their sanctuary policies were not ended. Immediately, the Justice Department was hit with lawsuits from open borders organizations and sanctuary cities. While many of the cases remain in the courts, the Justice Department has cleared 2017 grant money for 28 of those 29 sanctuary cities.

The continued sanctuary policies have kept having harsh consequences on American citizens.

Most recently, a convicted child rapist illegal alien living in the sanctuary city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was sentenced for re-entering the country. In the sanctuary state of California, a three-time deported illegal alien attempted to kill a Napa County police officer after being shielded from deportation. In Newman, California, an illegal alien — who would have been deported if not for the state’s sanctuary policy — is accused of murdering police officer Ronil Singh. Prosecutors allege that seven illegal aliens aided the accused killer in his attempt to evade arrest and flee the U.S. for Mexico.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.