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Justice Department Warns "Sanctuary" Cities to Comply or Pay; Judge Says No Way
Last week, cities and counties listed in a 2016 report for not complying fully with federal immigration authorities were issued letters by the Department of Justice to get in line or lose funding. This followed up an executive order in January promising significantly further action.
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.
After Mr. Sessions’s remarks, several municipal leaders vowed defiance; Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York said he would fight in court any attempt to strip funding from the city. In California...the State Senate leader Kevin de León charged that it was basing its law enforcement policies “on principles of white supremacy — not American values.”
“Failure to comply with this condition could result in the withholding of grant funds, suspension or termination of the grant, ineligibility for future O.J.P. grants or subgrants, or other action, as appropriate,” Alan R. Hanson, the acting director of the Office of Justice Programs, wrote.
Fortunately, in what's become a pattern for a White House acting out of turn, a federal judge has stepped in yet again to put a temporary stop to implementation of the executive order.
William H. Orrick of United States District Court, wrote that the president had overstepped his powers with his January executive order on immigration by tying billions of dollars in federal funding to immigration enforcement. Judge Orrick said only Congress could place such conditions on spending.
It was also an early verdict on the question of whether the White House can coerce cities and counties into helping federal immigration agents detain and deport immigrants who are not authorized to be in the country.
The recent DOJ action reportedly relates only to 2016 grant funding by the Justice Department and Homeland Security. However, the executive action threatened full withholding of billions of dollars in federal funding. The judge linked the two actions:
But Orrick sided with the jurisdictions, which argued that the administration has clearly targeted all federal funding. Orrick wrote, "Federal funding that bears no meaningful relationship to immigration enforcement cannot be threatened merely because a jurisdiction chooses an immigration enforcement strategy of which the president disapproves."
Sources: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/21/us/politics/sanctuary-city-justice-department.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/25/us/judge-blocks-trump-sanctuary-cities.html