Justice Dept. uses Fox News sanctuary state story in threat
In an escalation of the Trump administration’s war on sanctuary cities and states, the Justice Department sent a Fox News story to reporters that said the department was threatening to withdraw federal funds from California unless the state repealed a new law protecting some undocumented immigrants.
It was a mixed message, however. Attached to the emailed story — which the agency sent as an official news release — was a letter from a Justice Department official to a state official that contained no such threat, only a request to clarify some provisions of the law.
Both documents were dated Wednesday. The news release was headlined “ICYMI,” shorthand for “in case you missed it,” and continued, “FOX News: DOJ threatens to pull California’s funding over ‘sanctuary state’ law.”
The article said the Justice Department had warned California to “drop its sanctuary state status or remain in violation of federal law and potentially lose out on millions of dollars.”
The Justice Department’s media affairs office confirmed Friday that it had sent the news release, but did not respond to questions about the use of the Fox News article or the apparent contradiction between the article and the attached letter.
The new state law, SB54, due to take effect Jan. 1, broadens restrictions on state and local law enforcement officials’ cooperation with federal immigration agents.
It will prohibit law enforcement from keeping immigrants in custody after they have served their sentence so immigration agents can pick them up for deportation, unless the federal officials have a warrant. That prohibition would not apply to immigrants who have been convicted of, or are charged with, violent or serious crimes. The new law also bars police from asking people about their immigration status.
At least 300 cities and counties nationwide, including San Francisco, have adopted sanctuary laws or policies that limit their cooperation with immigration officers. President Trump has threatened to strip them of federal funding, but a federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that the administration lacked authority to do so.
The Fox News article circulated by the Justice Department said department officials could not only withhold new federal funds from California, but could also seek to recover $16 million in grants the state received in 2016.
The article quoted Justice Department spokesman Devin O’Malley as saying the new California law would require “local police (to) release criminal aliens back onto our streets. This law undermines public safety and national security, was opposed by law enforcement, and potentially violates federal law.”
He did not say what law the state was violating. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has argued that local and state governments should be penalized for refusing to hold immigrants for federal agents, but judges have ruled that such detention is not required by federal law.
The letter attached to the news release was far less combative. Signed by Alan Hanson, an acting assistant attorney general, it informed a state prison board official that parts of SB54 “may violate” a federal law that requires states to allow local officers to share information with federal agents about a detainee’s immigration status.
Hanson asked Kathleen Howard, executive director of the Board of State and Community Corrections, to certify that the new law does not prohibit sharing such information. State lawyers and the bill’s author, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, have maintained that SB54 allows all the cooperation that federal law requires.
“Federal law does not require states to affirmatively collect information about an individual’s immigration status,” the law firm of former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, which acted as a consultant to de León, told Sessions in a letter in June. SB54, the firm said, does not prevent police from sharing any information they have with federal agents.
Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko