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.
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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.
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