Fifteen lost truckloads of food pantry supplies. $1 billion in federal research funding cuts. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests carried out in Ithaca despite its sanctuary city status. The Trump administration’s policies have begun to trickle down to the local level, and the impacts are poised to deepen in the coming months.
Tompkins County residents flocked to a town hall on Friday, featuring a Cornell professor, county legislators and nonprofit leaders discussing the local and statewide implications and threats of the Trump administration.
The event was hosted at CRS Barn Studio and organized by Andrew Kreig ’70, a longtime nonprofit executive and author. Kreig offered an opening address, focusing on the influence of media and media framing. He was followed by Prof. Risa Lieberwitz, industrial labor relations, who argued that the Trump administration is systematically attacking higher education as part of an authoritarian agenda.
“Authoritarian regimes always attack higher education,” Lieberwitz said. “Because universities are where we find critical thinking, questioning the status quo and organizing for social justice.”
On April 8, the federal government froze over $1 billion in funding for Cornell amid Title VI investigations led by the U.S. Department of Education.
In a statement to the Cornell community on May 7, President Michael Kotlikoff said that significant medical and military research is halted in response to the federal funding freeze.
“To date, federal agencies have stopped work on or terminated more than 100 research projects at Cornell, abruptly ending ongoing research grants with no official notice of their future status,” Kotlikoff said.
Lieberwitz emphasized the Trump administration’s misuse of civil rights law, remarking that “Trump has weaponized Title VI of the Civil Rights Act — not to protect civil rights, but to silence political speech and dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs.”
Rich John, the chair of the county’s Public Safety Committee, highlighted the Trump administration's disruption of relations between local law enforcement and federal law enforcement, especially when it comes to immigration enforcement.
“So we now appear to be in a fundamentally different world where mutual trust, as we’ve operated under, is not valued,” John said. “The courtesy and respect that was ordinary is not, and we’re not being asked for collaboration.”
John noted that public safety in the local community is built on cooperation, trust and respect, which he said have been eschewed by President Donald Trump's high-handed tactics. He warned that the administration has militarized immigration policy not just to pursue deportations, but to intimidate and bypass due process, even threatening local leaders.
In 2017, Tompkins County passed a resolution to become a sanctuary jurisdiction and have a limited role in immigration enforcement, similar to sanctuary jurisdictions around the country. John defended the county's sanctuary status as a core tenet of the county, promoting confidence and national unity among local governments resisting federal overreach.
Specifically drawing on the January ICE operation in Ithaca that resulted in the arrest of Jesus Romero-Hernandez, John underscored the breach of trust between the local and federal level.
“ICE can’t meet their deportation goals without help from local law enforcement,” John said. “But trust is the essential cement that holds our law enforcement system together.”
Deborah Dawson, Tompkins County legislator and former U.S. Justice Department attorney, warned attendees that the Trump administration’s executive actions and the so-called "naughty list" executive order could lead to massive federal and state funding cuts, severely impacting Tompkins County’s budget and local services. She stated that approximately 35 percent of the county’s budget — roughly 15 percent in federal aid and 20 percent in state aid — is now vulnerable to potential federal funding cuts related to sanctuary policies and immigration enforcement.
Dawson specifically raised alarms about the consequences for Medicaid, SNAP and nutrition programs, with New York State potentially losing $13.5 billion in Medicaid funds annually and facing $2 billion in new costs. This fiscal stress could cascade down to counties like Tompkins, which already pay $1 million monthly for Medicaid despite having no control over eligibility or benefits, Dawson said.
“The county and our local community simply don't have capacity to make up the possible 35 to 40 percent cut in federal and state funding, especially as we all face the economic uncertainties created by the administration's vendetta against the University that is our major economic driver,” Dawson said.
She also highlighted the threat to Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit, the organization that handles the county’s public bus system, which faces federal funding cuts tied to political conditions — such as eliminating DEI programs and cooperating with ICE. Combined state and federal funding represent up to 40 percent of TCAT’s budget, and cuts could mean more residents stranded if routes are reduced.
Dawson warned that the impact would be devastating for local nonprofits and social services, from Meals on Wheels to housing vouchers, healthcare and reentry programs. The most vulnerable residents — including the 4,700 currently on Medicaid in the county — would be hit hardest. She concluded by describing the administration’s actions as a deliberate fiscal attack on dissenting communities and called on local leaders to speak out for those who cannot.
“The threat I see is that ultimately these issues may go to the Supreme Court. And God knows, given how politicized that court has become, what the final determination is going to be,” Dawson said in an interview with The Ithaca Voice.
Food insecurity in Tompkins County has spiked since the federal safety nets have begun to collapse, according to multiple speakers at the Tompkins County Legislature meeting on June 3. Sarah DeFrank, a member of the Food Policy Council and Tompkins Food Future and an employee at the Food Bank of the Southern Tier, spoke at the meeting, warning of the severe local consequences of federal food policy changes.
According to DeFrank, the Food Bank has lost 15 trailer truckloads of U.S. Department of Agriculture food due to the cancellation of the Commodity Credit Corporation initiative, resulting in a loss of 215,000 meals worth over $434,000.
These losses were replaced with lower-quality items, like snack foods rather than full meals, she said.
DeFrank also emphasized the threat posed by proposed federal cuts to SNAP and Medicaid in the House budget. She noted that SNAP currently brings in $1.5 million monthly to Tompkins County, generating $2.2 to $2.7 million in local economic activity.
“If SNAP is cut, it’s not just the families who suffer. It’s our entire local economy,” DeFrank said. Kelly Sauvé, the incoming executive director of Loaves and Fishes — an organization offering free meals, hospitality, companionship and advocacy for those in need — said the organization saw a “nearly 40 percent increase [in meals served] from the year before.”
Sauvé further emphasized that the increased need continues as benefits decrease and as a result, Loaves’ will also need more food to satisfy demand, highlighting the tangible strain on nonprofits, food banks and volunteers.
Attendees raised questions about how individuals, local communities, universities and advocacy groups can respond to mounting federal threats. The panelists enforced the sentiment that “The answer is us,” urging community members to “get out of their silos” as Dawson said, including joining organizing networks like Indivisible and building systems of support across issue areas such as LGBTQ+ rights, housing and environmental justice.
“We got to all get together and realize that until we defeat Trump's agenda,” Dawson said, “we all have to stand together and fight it."
Cereese Qusba is a reporter at The Ithaca Voice and a News Editor at The Cornell Daily Sun working on The Sun’s summer fellowship. This article was previously published in The Ithaca Voice.
Cereese Qusba is a member of the Class of 2027 in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is a news editor for the 143rd Editorial Board. She can be reached at cqusba@cornellsun.com.
