Embattled attorney general delivers new threat to sanctuary cities.
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday moved once again to punish sanctuary cities, announcing that cities and states could lose millions of dollars in federal grants unless they begin cooperating with immigration agents.
Only hours before, President Trump had issued his latest public rebuke of Sessions, amplifying the criticisms he had leveled on Twitter against his attorney general in a Rose Garden news conference at which the president said that he was “very disappointed” in Sessions’ performance. Asked about Sessions’ future employment, Trump said: “Time will tell. Time will tell.”
Sessions did not address the unfavorable performance review Tuesday — it was “business as usual” at the Justice Department, a spokeswoman said — but the sanctuary city announcement signaled that he is far from giving up on the immigration agenda he has zealously pursued since he was a senator from Alabama.
“This is what the American people should be able to expect from their cities and states,” Sessions said, adding: “These long overdue requirements will help us take down MS-13 and other violent transnational gangs, and make our country safer.”
But it was not clear that he could hold cities to such conditions. Earlier this year, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from withholding funding over sanctuary policies, a ruling the judge, William H. Orrick of U.S. District Court in San Francisco, recently reaffirmed over the objections of the government, which argued that only a small pool of grants was at stake.
On Tuesday evening, officials in sanctuary cities reacted to the announcement with skepticism and hostility.
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who is suing the Trump administration over its attempts to cut off funding to sanctuary cities, argued in a statement that Sessions’ latest effort violates the Constitution.
“We are reviewing these new grant documents, but we remain confident that San Francisco’s sanctuary city policies comply with federal law,” he said.
To receive certain grants for local law enforcement, Sessions said, local governments must agree to allow federal immigration agents access to their jails and to provide 48 hours’ notice before releasing immigrants whom federal authorities want to detain for immigration violations.
Doing so would knock aside a major hurdle for immigration agents trying to carry out Trump’s policies: Instead of trying to round up targeted immigrants on the street or during raids, they would be able to collect their targets straight from local jails.