New York Times
By Vivian Yee
August 14, 2017
Intensifying California’s standoff with the Trump administration over immigration policy, the California attorney general sued the Justice Department on Monday over the administration’s plans to cut off millions of dollars in federal funding to so-called sanctuary cities unless they begin cooperating with federal immigration agents.
The state’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, argued in the lawsuit that the Justice Department’s threat, made by Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month, undermines public safety and violates the Constitution.
“It’s a low blow to our men and women who wear the badge for the federal government to threaten their crime-fighting resources in order to force them to do the work of the federal government,” Mr. Becerra said at a news conference. “We’re in the best position to determine how best to enforce the law and keep our people safe.”
Mr. Becerra’s suit is the latest in a barrage of legal challenges in California and elsewhere over President Trump’s efforts to compel cooperation from local governments on immigration policy. Chicago sued the Justice Department over the same federal grants last week, and San Francisco quietly filed a matching complaint on Friday.
It was San Francisco’s second time suing the Trump administration over the issue. In a previous skirmish, San Francisco and Santa Clara County won a nationwide injunction in April against Mr. Trump’s January executive order on immigration, which directed his administration to deny billions of dollars in funding to sanctuary cities. Similar lawsuits have come out of Richmond, Calif., and Seattle.
But while Mr. Trump’s executive order carried an undefined, if sweeping, threat, Mr. Sessions’s announcement last month was bluntly concrete: If local governments wanted the Justice Department’s money, they had to agree to allow federal immigration agents to interview immigrants at their jails and to give federal authorities 48 hours’ notice before releasing anyone with potential immigration violations.
Taken together, those conditions would allow immigration agents to pick up unauthorized immigrants directly from local authorities, turning jails into pipelines for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Without access to local jails, federal authorities use other tactics to find their targets — often raiding immigrants’ homes or showing up at locations like local courthouses.
Mr. Sessions has accused officials in sanctuary cities of shielding dangerous criminals from immigration agents.
“Several California cities, including San Francisco, have already experienced the devastating effects that sanctuary policies have on their citizens,” a Justice Department spokesman, Devin O’Malley, said on Monday. “Given the multiple high-profile incidents that have occurred in California in recent years, it is especially disappointing that state leaders would take steps to limit cooperation between local jurisdictions and immigration authorities that are trying to keep Californians safe.”
Officials in sanctuary cities, however, argue that their communities are safer when immigrants trust local authorities enough to report crimes and serve as witnesses without fear of deportation. Local law enforcement agencies have also faced lawsuits for holding inmates for federal immigration authorities.
The San Francisco and California lawsuits say that by tying the grant funding to immigration matters, the Justice Department is exceeding the constitutional authority of the executive branch. Only Congress can set such conditions, they say.
Squeezed by the Justice Department, several local officials have already contacted Mr. Becerra’s office seeking guidance on how to respond before the Sept. 5 deadline for applying for new grants, he said.
“It’s pretty clear that this is another attempt to accomplish what they were unsuccessful in accomplishing with the sanctuary city executive order,” the San Francisco city attorney, Dennis Herrera, said at the news conference.
He added, “Our police and deputies are focused on fighting crime, not breaking up hard-working families.”
The money in question, from the Justice Department’s Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, dispensed more than $260 million to states and cities in 2016. California and its local jurisdictions are scheduled to receive a total of $28.3 million next year, Mr. Becerra said.
San Francisco, which could lose about $1.4 million if the new terms of the grant are enforced, uses the money for diversion programs that focus on treating and rehabilitating defendants, services for young people at risk of committing crimes, drug deterrence and other initiatives.
Follow Vivian Yee on Twitter @VivianHYee.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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