ATTORNEY GENERAL/SANCTUARY CITIES/TRUMP PEOPLE/JEFF SESSIONS: “Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday [5-22-17] clarified President Trump’s executive order on so-called sanctuary cities, narrowly defining such jurisdictions — and the money they could expect to receive from the federal government — in a way that appeared to fall far short of Mr. Trump’s previous threats to starve all federal funding from localities that limit their cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Later on Monday, the Justice Department asked a federal court in California to reconsider a ruling that blocked the order last month.
In a two-page memorandum, Mr. Sessions announced that the Trump administration would withhold certain types of federal aid from jurisdictions that ‘willfully refuse to comply’ with a single federal immigration law. That statute requires cities, counties and states to allow local agencies and officials to exchange information about people’s immigration status with federal immigration authorities.
Only federal grants from the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security would be affected, Mr. Sessions said.”
-Vivian Lee and Rebecca R. Ruiz, “Sessions Narrows Trump’s Order Against Sanctuary Cities,” The New York Times online, May 22, 2017