DOJ cranks up pressure on ‘sanctuary’ cities
Agency threatens to subpoena records from jurisdictions protecting migrants
The Justice Department threatened on Wednesday to subpoena records from the state of California and other “sanctuary” jurisdictions, including San Francisco, Berkeley and Fremont, escalating the federal government’s battle with the state over immigration policy.
President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions have long promised to target places with policies friendly to those in the country illegally — warning they might withhold federal money from some and trying to tie grant eligibility to cooperation with federal authorities on immigration matters. The Justice
Department had previously contacted the 23 jurisdictions threatened Wednesday, raising worries they might be in violation of a federal law barring places from enacting policies that block communication with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
California officials insisted that the state is in full compliance with federal law. Tracie Cone, a spokeswoman for the Board of State and Community Corrections, the state agency that administers the federal grant in question, said the board would respond to the DOJ’s letter by its deadline.
State Attorney General Xavier Becerra is currently
suing the federal government over the defunding threats and “fully expects to prevail in our pending litigation over the federal government’s overbroad interpretation of the law,” said Jennifer Molina, a spokeswoman with the state Attorney General’s Office.
Jon Rodney, spokesman for the California Immigrant Policy Center, an immigrant rights organization with offices in Oakland, Sacramento and Los Angeles, says sanctuary cities are “on the right side of history.”
“We’ve seen over and over again the courts have found that the federal government cannot force our local government to carry out the dirty work of deportation and to seize our local resources for these abuses,” said Rodney, who is based in Oakland. “I think this
move is part of a clear pattern of attempts at retaliation and, really, oppression. The truth is that immigrants are part of our community, and people across the Bay Area are committed to defending the common humanity of all people who live here.”
It wasn’t immediately clear why Alameda County wasn’t on the DOJ target list, but San Jose, a “sanctuary city,” wasn’t included in the new order because the city submitted its police policy to the Department of Justice last year, according to Zulma Maciel, director of the city’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. San Jose was the first city to sue the Trump administration over its decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, which protects young immigrants, or “Dreamers,”
who were brought here illegally as children.
In a new letter, Bureau of Justice Assistance Director Jon Adler said officials remained “concerned” that the places had policies that violate the law, even after their previous responses. He asked for a new bevy of documents — including “any orders, directives, instructions, or guidance to your law enforcement employees” — and said the department would subpoena the materials if necessary.
That threat escalates the department’s effort, as it could have the courts compelling jurisdictions to turn over documents that they didn’t provide voluntarily.
“I continue to urge all jurisdictions under review to reconsider policies that place the safety of their communities and their residents at risk,” Sessions said
in a statement. “Protecting criminal aliens from federal immigration authorities defies common sense and undermines the rule of law. We have seen too many examples of the threat to public safety represented by jurisdictions that actively thwart the federal government’s immigration enforcement — enough is enough.”
In total, the 23 jurisdictions received more than $39 million in fiscal year 2016 money from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program — which Sessions is now threatening to put at risk.
It is unclear, however, whether the threat will come with real teeth.
Much of Sessions and the president’s sanctuary jurisdictions crackdown has been stymied by the courts.
A federal judge in California last year blocked Trump’s executive order to cut funding to such places, and a federal judge in Chicago ruled that Sessions had exceeded his authority in imposing new conditions, such as requiring recipients to give immigration authorities access to jails and 48 hours notice when suspected illegal immigrants are to be released. on particular law enforcement grants.
A federal judge in Philadelphia also ruled that city was in compliance with the law and blocked the Justice Department from withholding money.
The Justice Department has appealed all those cases.