The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Sanctuary flap delays $2.6M in aid
A legal standoff between the Trump administration and socalled sanctuary cities is costing Connecticut $2.6 million in community policing grants.
The delay is despite a rare affirmation from Attorney General Jeff Sessions that the state is compliant with federal immigration laws.
The money is typically disbursed to cities and states by Sept. 30 — the end of the federal fiscal year — but city and state officials say that the DOJ missed the deadline.
No payments were made to any states or cities.
The delay coincides with a court battle between the Justice Department and Chicago, where Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the former White House chief of staff to Barack Obama, got a court injunction last month to prevent the Justice Department from withholding aid to sanctuary cities. Several other major cities have also been flagged by the DOJ for noncompliance with federal immigration laws, including New York City.
Connecticut had been expected to receive $1.7 million in Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants (JAG) for
community policing, with two-thirds of the money shared with municipalities and the balance used by State Police. In addition, 16 cities and towns were on track to get $909,704 directly from the Justice Department under the program, which traditionally announces grant awards in April.
“This is money a lot of police departments count on every year,” said Michael Lawlor, the state’s under secretary for criminal justice policy and planning. “This is the first year I can remember when this wasn’t all dealt with six months ago. There’s been no explanation from DOJ what the holdup is.”
Connecticut was notified last week that the state met the Justice Department guidelines for aid, but it is home to a number of sanctuary cities such as New Haven and Hartford. The governor, Democrat Dannel P. Malloy, has been excoriated by the Trump administration over his opposition to the president’s deportation orders.
Requests for comment were left for the Justice Department and with the White House press office.
Multiple sources attributed the delay to the Trump’s administration ongoing efforts to defend its executive order penalizing sanctuary cities from legal challenges. The directive requires cities and states to share citizenship status information for both undocumented and legal immigrants with the federal government to be eligible for JAG funds.
Peter Lumaj, a Republican immigration lawyer from Fairfield who is exploring a run for governor, defended Trump’s crackdown.
“Do they want the money from Washington so they can fight crime and keep these cities safe?” Lumaj said of big-city mayors and the governor. “We must be a law-abiding state. Federal law supersedes state and local law.”
The grant amounts are based on the local crime rate and population, with New Haven and Bridgeport leading the way in 2016 among Connecticut recipients. They were awarded $217,907 and $195,781 respectively.
That was before Trump took office, however.
New Haven has celebrated its status as a sanctuary city, with Democratic Mayor Toni Harp receiving cheers when she reaffirmed the designation in August. The city, at local churches, has given asylum to multiple undocumented immigrants facing deportation. Its projected JAG grant for 2017 is $193,255.
In Bridgeport, Mayor Joe Ganim, signed resolution in May declaring the community of 148,000 residents a “welcoming city” for documented and undocumented immigrants. He finally signed off on a municipal identification card program for undocumented immigrants that had also been delayed.
But the Democrat, who has ties to Trump through a failed 1990s casino project in Bridgeport, has been reluctant to embrace sanctuary city status.
The state’s largest city, Bridgeport submitted an application for a JAG grant for 2017, estimated to be $165,793. It also applied for a $1.875 million COPS hiring grant, which is also administered through the Justice Department. The money will be used for 15 new police officers.
“The City Grants Department has not received any form of response to this application as of yet,” said Rowena White, a Ganim spokeswoman.
Bridgeport is short it’s full complement of police officers and an apparent gang war has driven the homicide rate to 22 deaths so far this year — more than double last year’s homicides.
Stamford, where officials have said the city’s finite law enforcement resources are for combatting violent crime, but not for being the immigration police, is expected to receive $41,637 in JAG funds.
“Traditionally we use the funds to assist with our foot patrols in neighborhoods that are victimized by crime,” said Thomas Wuennemann, the assistant police chief. “The relationships that we build with the community during these crime prevention activities are invaluable.”
Danbury, which has pledged to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement initiatives, is slated to receive $18,663 for 2017. The city’s Republican mayor, Mark Boughton, who is exploring a run for governor, frowned upon his counterparts who have embraced sanctuary city status.
“We just don’t think it’s the right policy,” Boughton said. “These types of untangling of messes when cities decide their own immigration policy causes people to lose money and grants to be eliminated.”
Requests for comment were also left with officials in Norwalk, which is expected to receive $32,883.
In 2013, Connecticut passed the Transparency and Responsibility Using State Tools Act, which gives local law enforcement officers discretion to carry out immigration detainer requests only for suspected felons. The legislation was borne out of a class-action lawsuit filed by a Yale Law clinic on behalf of Sergio Brizuela, an East Haven resident who was held for several days by the state Department of Correction on an immigration detainer.
The legislation put the state in the crosshairs of immigration hard-liners, who designated Connecticut as a sanctuary state. Last week, the state was removed from a list of non-compliant jurisdictions by the Justice Department, however.