Homeland Security head is pressed to define 'sanctuary city'

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told law enforcement officials on a tour of nation's border with Mexico Friday that he couldn't define a sanctuary city, which President Donald Trump has targeted for withdrawal of federal funding for refusing to cooperate with immigration authorities.

Trump's executive order on immigration last month says a "sanctuary jurisdiction" defies federal law by shielding people in the country illegally and that they have caused "immeasurable harm to the American people and to the very fabric of our Republic."

Kelly later told reporters that he worried about a federal appeals court's refusal to reinstate Trump's ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

At the meeting with law enforcement officials, San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore sought help for legal authority to hold criminals in the country illegally after they finish their sentences, giving ICE authorities more time to pick them up at county jails.