Nuts to Trump
Chicago will sue to protect immig sanctuary funds
SANCTUARY CITIES aren’t going to retreat from President Trump’s threats.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Sunday the city will sue the Trump administration over its plans to swipe federal funds from sanctuary cities — while California Gov. Jerry Brown encouraged his state to take legal action, too.
Emanuel, a Democrat, said he refuses to let Trump use Chicago cops as “political pawns in a debate.”
“Chicago will not let our residents have their fundamental rights isolated and violated,” he said in a press conference about the city’s impending federal lawsuit.
“And Chicago will never relinquish our status as a welcoming city.”
Brown, appearing on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” said he supported the calls in California for the state to file its own lawsuit rebuking Trump’s threats.
“It might just be very helpful to get into court and resolve this in a judicial form, rather than in the rhetoric of politicians talking past one another,” the Democratic governor said.
Brown said it would be up to the state’s attorney general to decide whether to file the papers.
Emanuel and Brown’s pushback came days after the Trump administration took one of its first formal steps to coerce sanctuary cities like New York into cooperating with the feds.
The Justice Department last month released its 2017 application for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, which awards millions of federal dollars to state and local governments for criminal justice initiatives.
For the first time, the grant application included provisions requiring local governments to let Homeland Security access any detention facility and investigate inmates suspected of being undocumented. The application also says local governments have to give the feds 48 hours’ notice before releasing someone who is wanted for immigration violations. Both of these rules are listed as necessities to receive federal money.
Trump signed an executive order five days into presidency to halt federal funds for cities that do not turn over undocumented immigrants, but a federal judge blocked the order in April.
Mayor de Blasio said in January the city would be ready to sue Trump to block his plans.