Justice Department Fires Opening Salvo At Sanctuary Cities, Demanding Proof They’re Complying With Federal Law

More proof that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is not playing around, and that he expects cities, states, and counties to comply with duly passed federal laws

(NY Times) The Trump administration escalated its confrontation with so-called sanctuary cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, threatening them anew Friday with the loss of grant money if they do not remove certain barriers.

The Justice Department sent letters to officials in New York City, Philadelphia, California and other places singled out last year by the agency’s inspector general for regulations that interfere with the ability of police or sheriffs to communicate with federal immigration authorities about the status of prisoners in their custody.

“Many of these jurisdictions are also crumbling under the weight of illegal immigration and violent crime,” the Justice Department said in a news release.

That press release states

Today, the Department of Justice sent the attached letters to nine jurisdictions which were identified in a May 2016 report by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General as having laws that potentially violate 8 U.S.C. § 1373.

Additionally, many of these jurisdictions are also crumbling under the weight of illegal immigration and violent crime. The number of murders in Chicago has skyrocketed, rising more than 50 percent from the 2015 levels. New York City continues to see gang murder after gang murder, the predictable consequence of the city’s “soft on crime” stance. And just several weeks ago in California’s Bay Area, after a raid captured 11 MS-13 members on charges including murder, extortion and drug trafficking, city officials seemed more concerned with reassuring illegal immigrants that the raid was unrelated to immigration than with warning other MS-13 members that they were next.

The letters remind the recipient jurisdictions that, as a condition for receiving certain financial year 2016 funding from the Department of Justice, each of these jurisdictions agreed to provide documentation and an opinion from legal counsel validating that they are in compliance with Section 1373. The Department of Justice expects each of these jurisdictions to comply with this grant condition and to submit all documentation to the Office of Justice Programs by June 30, 2017, the deadline imposed by the grant agreement.

It includes a link to the compliance letters to the California Board of State and Community Corrections, Chicago superintendent of Police, Mayor of New Orleans, Mayor of Philadelphia, Las Angeles County Manager, Mayor of Miami, County Executive of Milwaukee County, NY City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, and Cook County Board of Commissioners (Chicago area again).

The recipients of the letters were warned that as a condition of receiving 2016 grants, they must certify by June 30 that they were in compliance with the law. That enforced a deadline on a policy put in place under the Obama administration, which announced the policy last July but gave cities not in compliance time to adjust.

If they are not in compliance, they could lose federal funding. Of course, many became defiant, such as NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio, who is supporting illegal aliens over The Law. And NYC could be out over $4.3 million dollars if they want to continue to defy federal law. The others could be out a lot of needed money, as well.

Crossed at Right Wing News.