CALIFORNIA/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LEGAL/SANCTUARY CITIES: “Intensifying California’s standoff with the Trump administration over immigration policy, the California attorney general sued the Justice Department on Monday [8-14-17] 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…
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…
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.”
-Vivian Yee, “California Sues Justice Dept. Over Funding for Sanctuary Cities,” The New York Times online, Aug. 14, 2017