ULTIMATUM TO NY ON IMMIGRANTS
AG: Comply or lose grant $$
The Department of Justice is giving New York City two weeks to comply with federal immigration laws or it will force the city to pay back millions of dollars in law-enforcement grants.
A Justice Department review of Big Apple laws and policies found four instances where city rules violate federal immigration laws, the feds said in an Oct. 11 letter to the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice obtained by The Post.
The department informed the city it has two weeks to ensure it won’t prohibit the NYPD and Department of Correction from sharing immigration statuses with federal officers, including complying with detention requests when an illegal immigrant
Jurisdictions that adopt so-called "sanctuary policies" also adopt the view that the protection of criminal aliens is more important than the protection of law-abiding citizens and of the rule of law. - Attorney General Jeff Sessions (left)
is released from jail after serving time.
“Jurisdictions that adopt socalled ‘sanctuary policies’ also adopt the view that the protection of criminal aliens is more important than the protection of law-abiding citizens and of the rule of law,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement to The Post.
If the city doesn’t satisfy the DOJ, local taxpayers would have to repay the feds $4.3 million in Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant money the city received in 2016.
The grant — named for an NYPD officer slain in the line of duty in 1988 — provides money for anti-crime and anti-terror initiatives, as well as for prosecution and indigent defense.
It is contingent on cities agreeing to share information with the federal government on individuals’ immigration statuses, while providing 48-hour notice before releasing undocumented immigrants being held as criminal suspects, the feds say.
New Orleans, Philadelphia, Cook County, Ill., and its largest city, Chicago, received similar letters.
Future federal grants from the Justice Department could also be imperiled.
But Chicago won a preliminary junction that blocks the feds from taking such action for now.
Mayor de Blasio is also gearing up for a legal showdown with the Trump administration.
“We are fully in compliance with the law,” de Blasio said Thursday.
“The NYPD deserves the antiterrorism funding they’ve gotten from the federal government. And if President Trump stops our funding for the NYPD, we will see the president in court. It’s as simple as that.”
Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 25 instructing the DOJ to review whether cities complied with federal immigration laws, and the Justice Department warned in April that it was investigating New York City.
The city’s laws permit the NYPD to help the feds deport perpetrators — but only those convicted of certain crimes. The de Blasio administration has compiled a list of 170 felonies, but critics say it’s not enough.
Other law-enforcement grants the city receives from the Department of Homeland Security are not under threat, according to police sources.