The Department of Justice threatened to subpoena 23 jurisdictions across the country if they fail to answer questions about their lawless “sanctuary” policies that shield illegal aliens, a move that prompted left-wing big city mayors to boycott a White House meeting.
“I continue to urge all jurisdictions under review to reconsider policies that place the safety of their communities and their residents at risk,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement.
“Protecting criminal aliens from federal immigration authorities defies common sense and undermines the rule of law. We have seen too many examples of the threat to public safety represented by jurisdictions that actively thwart the federal government’s immigration enforcement—enough is enough.”
The subpoena threat comes as federal prosecutors consider filing criminal charges against elected officials harboring illegal aliens in sanctuary cities.
“The Department of Justice is reviewing what avenues might be available,” Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told a Senate panel Jan. 16. “The context of this is of course not only putting my ICE officers at risk but also finding an efficient and effective way to enforce our immigration laws,” Nielsen said.
The sanctuary movement gave illegal aliens permission to rob, rape, and murder Americans by, among other things, stigmatizing immigration enforcement. Some left-wingers use the dreadful euphemism “civil liberties safe zones” to describe sanctuary jurisdictions. The phrase blurs the distinction between citizens and non-citizens by implying illegal aliens somehow possess a civil right to be present in the U.S.
These sanctuary cities really ought to be called traitor cities because they are in open rebellion against the United States. They may as well be flying the Confederate battle flag at city hall in their modern-day campaign of massive resistance against federal immigration authorities.
“Cities do not have the right to pick and choose which federal laws they will obey or defy,” Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, told FrontPage by email.
“The Attorney General is right to hold them accountable for their actions. The precedent set by sanctuary cities is one this country should not and does not want to follow.”—
Democrat politicians across America are defending sanctuary jurisdictions because they want the illegal aliens living there to become citizens and loyal Democrats.
One of those Democrats, New York City’s hotheaded small-c communist mayor Bill de Blasio, melted down in a temper tantrum on Twitter.
“I will NOT be attending today’s meeting at the White House after @realDonaldTrump’s Department of Justice decided to renew their racist assault on our immigrant communities. It doesn’t make us safer and it violates America’s core values.”
U.S. Conference of Mayors president Mitch Landrieu (D), who is mayor of New Orleans, La., also bowed out using overblown political rhetoric.
“Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s decision to threaten mayors and demonize immigrants yet again – and use cities as political props in the process – has made this meeting untenable,” he huffed.
The threat itself was contained in letters sent to Chicago, New York City, three states, and other jurisdictions that have accepted law enforcement funding from the Justice Department, demanding records related to whether those governments are “unlawfully restricting information sharing by law enforcement officers with federal immigration authorities.” New York City, for example, in fiscal 2016 accepted $4.3 million in federal funds under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program (JAG).
The letters seek documents “reflecting any orders, directives, instructions, or guidance to your law enforcement employees” about how to “communicate with the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and/or Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
Federal money usually comes with strings attached, so if the states, cities, and counties that took DoJ grants are violating other laws by interfering with federal immigration enforcement, they may have to give the money back and could be barred from receiving future grants.
“We’ve given them federal dollars – your taxpayer dollars – to cooperate with federal law enforcement,” DoJ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores told Fox News Channel.“They didn’t have to take that money, but they did. And when they took it, they said they would comply with federal law. So what we’re saying is if we find out you’re not complying with federal law, we’re taking the tax dollars back.”
Three states – California, Illinois, and Oregon – received the subpoena-related letters yesterday, according to the DoJ. The other jurisdictions were: Chicago; Cook County, Ill; New York City; Albany, N.Y.; Berkeley, Calif.; Bernalillo County, N.M.; Burlington, Vt.; the city and county of Denver, Colo.; Fremont, Calif.; Jackson, Miss.; King County, Wash.; Lawrence, Mass.; City of Los Angeles, Calif.; Louisville, Ky.; Monterey County, Calif.; Sacramento County, Calif.; the city and county of San Francisco; Sonoma County, Calif.; Watsonville, Calif.; and West Palm Beach, Fla.
California has been especially brazen in its obstruction of federal immigration laws.
The state is becoming ground zero in the battle over enforcement of the nation’s long-neglected immigration laws. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed “sanctuary state” legislation Oct. 5, dramatically curtailing the power of state and local law enforcement to hold, question, and transfer detainees at the request of federal immigration authorities. The law took effect New Year’s Day in the state that is home to more than 2 million illegal aliens. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) has been threatening to prosecute residents of his state who cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
Left-wing federal judges have been sabotaging President Trump’s immigration policies since the beginning of his term of office.
For example, on Nov. 20 U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Judge William Orrick III, a leftist appointed by President Obama, issued a nationwide injunction against Executive Order 13768, signed by President Trump on Jan. 25, 2017, which withheld federal monies from sanctuary jurisdictions.
Meanwhile, illegal-alien activists are becoming increasingly aggressive in their tactics.
Activists with the George Soros-funded group, United We Dream, staged a mock funeral in the rotunda of the U.S. Senate Wednesday, claiming the failure of Congress and President Trump to amnesty them is “killing our dreams,” Breitbart reports.
One illegal whined that the GOP and Trump were “scaring” her fellow illegals in Long Island, N.Y. Activists have also been invading congressional offices and causing trouble there.
On Tuesday, illegal aliens stormed the residence of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D) in Brooklyn, N.Y., after he abandoned his party’s disastrous government shutdown strategy on Monday, allowing the government to reopen after being closed a mere 69 hours.
“If Chuck won’t let us dream, we won’t let him sleep!” illegals shouted outside Schumer’s home.
There are around 700,000 individuals benefitting from President Obama’s constitutionally suspect Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that he created with the stroke of a pen. Democrats shut down the government Saturday at 12:01 a.m. by denying it operating funds in hopes of extorting an amnesty package for DACA-eligible persons from the Republican-controlled Congress.
In two weeks when the government runs out of money again, Democrats are likely to press the point again. But they don’t just want amnesty for DACA individuals – they want it for all the 4 million or so so-called DREAMers, many of whom failed to apply for relief under DACA but could conceivably qualify under the kind of amnesty Democrats want. Contrary to what the word implies, DREAMers tend to be less educated and less established than typical Americans.
Come to think of it, Democrats want virtually all illegal aliens amnestied. If Americans won’t vote for them, they make up for the shortfall by importing voters.
This must stop.