Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall is cutting off taxpayer funds for municipalities that provide sanctuary to illegal immigrants.

The Richland Township Republican on Thursday introduced House Resolution 19 to block state appropriations for local governments that shield illegal immigrants from federal immigration enforcement.

“I would like to see us use funding as a way to punish these sanctuary jurisdictions,” Hall told reporters Thursday. “Let me say it differently: I think it should be an incentive – increased funding beyond what’s constitutionally required is an incentive for things like working to have safer communities through complying with ICE and working and partnering with ICE.”

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According to HR 19: “An appropriations bill or conference report shall not be brought for a vote if it contains a legislatively directed spending item for which the intended recipient is a municipality, including any official, department, or board of a municipality, that actively maintains any rule, policy, or ordinance that would subvert immigration enforcement in any way or that refuses to comply with federal immigration enforcement measures.”

Hall said the measure will soon be taken up in committee, and he’s confident it will gain approval, Bridge Michigan reports.

“Any community that refuses to cooperate with federal immigration officials should expect the same cold shoulder from state government come budget time,” state Rep. John Roth, R-Interlochen, said in a statement Thursday.

“The feds are trying to keep our communities safe, and these rogue cities are doing whatever they can to protect these violent criminals and let them right back out onto our streets,” he said. “Speaker Hall took a stand today and made it clear that any community that prioritizes illegal immigrants over its own citizens will have their access to state funding cut off at the source.”

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Hall said the resolution would apply to governments where police refuse to arrest or detain based on a criminal federal immigration violation, or jails that require a judicial warrant, rather than a detainer, to hold illegal immigrant criminals for ICE.

The Center for Immigration Studies identifies 10 Michigan municipalities, mostly counties, where “laws, ordinances, regulations, resolutions, policies, or other practices that obstruct immigration enforcement and shield criminals from ICE.”

They include jail policies in Luce, Leelanau, Wexford, Muskegon, Kent, Oakland, and Washtenaw counties, as well as sheriff’s policies in Kalamazoo and Wayne counties.

CIS also identifies the city of Lansing as a sanctuary, citing a 2017 city council policy not to honor detainer requests without a criminal arrest warrant.

HR 19 comes amid the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, set in motion by executive orders signed by President Donald Trump immediately upon taking office last month.

“All illegal entry will immediately be halted. And we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came,” Trump said in his inauguration speech. “We will reinstate my remain in Mexico policy. I will end the practice of catch and release. And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”

HR 19 would require local governments to submit information to the House affirming cooperation with federal immigration enforcement to qualify for special legislative grants, commonly referred to as pork projects.

While the resolution would not apply to the Democratic majority in the Senate, it would block all votes on spending bills in the House that violate the rule, and Hall said Thursday the change is non-negotiable.

Lawmakers have spent billions on secret pork projects in recent years, as Democrats held a government trifecta that limited Republican opposition. Hall, elected speaker of a new Republican House majority last month, pointed to funds for an All of the Above Hip Hop Academy in Lansing, a “zen zone” for teachers in Novi, and splash pads in Ann Arbor and elsewhere as examples of past pork projects.

“If they want us to pay for their splash pads, then they can comply with federal law enforcement and enforce our immigration laws,” he said.

HR 19 follows discussions in multiple Michigan municipalities over implementing sanctuary policies, including a shelved proposal in Kalamazoo Township, and rallies and demands at city commission meetings in Grand Rapids.

Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand last week said Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts represent “a terrible, terrible moment for our country” and promised city police “are not in the business of enforcing immigration law.”

Also last week in Kalamazoo Township, six Democrats and one Republican on the township board voted down a slate of four measures designed to defy Trump’s executive orders, including an immigration enforcement ordinance that would ban the use of township resources to assist federal enforcement.

Trump’s Department of Justice, meanwhile, is working to identify state and local officials who “threaten to impede” deportations, The Associated Press reports.

“Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands and requests,” read a recent memo from Trump Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove. “The U.S. Attorney’s Offices and litigating components of the Department of Justice shall investigate incidents involving any such misconduct for potential prosecution.”

Hall noted the discussions in Kalamazoo Township and Grand Rapids on Thursday, according to Bridge.

“I want to send a clear message to you, if you’re going to be a sanctuary township, it’s going to put your state funding at risk,” he said.

“We’ll go farther than this,” Hall added, pointing to funding from a proposed public safety trust fund and bonus revenue sharing, though he clarified his resolution would not apply to constitutionally mandated revenue sharing.

Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, isn’t a big fan of Hall’s resolution, MLive reports.

“The state budget should be seen as a tool to build communities up,” she said. “After these utterly chaotic past two weeks, it’s clear that using funding as a weapon serves no purpose.”

It was a similar response from House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri, D-Canton, who alleged the “irresponsible and reckless” proposal is a “xenophobic attempt to punish diverse communities.”

Last week, Brinks blocked legislation in the Senate to create a DEPORT task force to align state and federal immigration policy, but Hall warned on Thursday resistance to HR 19 is futile.

“If Democrats want to shut down the government for pork projects to sanctuary jurisdictions, I guess they can do that, but the public would not be behind them,” Hall said.