Sanctuary cities standoff sidetracks OKC police grant

Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ crusade against so-called sanctuary cities is jeopardizing crimefighting funds that Oklahoma City has relied on for years.

Bogged down by a lawsuit with the city of Chicago, the U.S. Justice Department has delayed the release of federal grants that normally would have been awarded last fall.

The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, or JAG, program funds priorities including police and prosecutors, and drug treatment, mental health and crime victims’ programs.

Oklahoma City was expecting to receive $275,000 out of a total of $1.059 million allocated to cities and counties across Oklahoma.

Another $2.4 million was allocated to the state.

President Donald Trump has threatened to withhold funds from cities with “sanctuary” policies limiting local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

It was unclear, though, why grant recipients such as Oklahoma City that are on record as not being sanctuaries are having their funds withheld.

Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty said

many communities had been caught in the middle “over a couple of sanctuary cities.

“We’re all suffering over that.”

Victims’ rights

Oklahoma City police applied last year for JAG funds for a victim services coordinator and for four part-time employees to maintain a sex offender registry.

The police department created the position for a victim services coordinator in 2012 with JAG funds.

The goal is help crime victims “re-establish safety, utilize community resources, and know their statutory and constitutional rights as a victim.”

With police as a key partner, Oklahoma City has made gains in providing comprehensive services to crime victims and opened a Family Justice Center a year ago.

Police and prosecutors, counselors, health care and social workers, children’s advocates, legal aid attorneys and others are available at the center to assist domestic violence victims, sexual assault victims, and stalking victims.

Citty received a national victims’ rights award from the Justice Department earlier this month in Washington.

The sex offender registry is staffed by retired police officers who keep current with about 1,300 sex offenders and violent offenders.

State law requires those offenders to register with the Police Department.

Fund shift

Having the retired officers work the registry frees two uniform officers to investigate cases of failure to register and to file charges as necessary.

The program began in 2008 and has been funded by JAG annually since then.

Citty has proposed shifting the JAG-funded positions onto the general fund, the city’s primary account for day-today expenses.

It is up to City Manager Jim Couch to decide whether to include funding for the positions in the 2018-19 budget. His proposed budget goes before the city council May 1.

Once the impasse over this year’s JAG funds is resolved, Citty said he plans to put the federal dollars toward buying a new bomb robot.

He said it was time the other programs were moved off the grant anyway.

The city of Chicago sued Attorney General Jeff Sessions last year after the Justice Department imposed new conditions on the Byrne Justice Assistance Grants.

Lawsuit fallout

According to the conditions, local jurisdictions must ensure federal immigration authorities have access to jails to inquire whether individual inmates are illegal immigrants.

Jails also must ensure federal authorities receive advance notice of plans to release a particular inmate, if the information has been requested by the government.

In September, a U.S. District Court judge in Chicago issued a preliminary injunction blocking imposition of the “access” and “notice” conditions on release of JAG funds.

Afterward, the Justice Department said on its website that release

of JAG funds had been halted. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the preliminary injunction on Thursday.

The three-judge Appeals Court panel agreed in a 35-page opinion that Sessions likely lacked authority to impose the conditions on JAG recipients.

In response, a spokesman said the Justice Department believed it exercised its authority, as given by Congress, to

attach conditions to JAG “that promote cooperation with federal immigration authorities when the jurisdiction has an illegal alien who has committed a crime in their custody.”

“We will continue to fight to carry out the department’s commitment to the rule of law, protecting public safety, and keeping criminal aliens off the streets to further perpetrate crimes,” said spokesman Devin O’Malley.

In response to questions about why the government continues to withhold Oklahoma City’s grant while the lawsuit goes forward, O’Malley said Friday the department had no comment beyond Thursday’s statement.