WASHINGTON >> Following up on President Trump’s promises to crack down on cities and counties that refuse to turn over illegal immigrants to federal officials, Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday said jurisdictions must demonstrate that they are not so-called “sanctuary cities” in order to receive grants from the Justice Department.
In a move that could mean the loss of billions of dollars to local jurisdictions across the United States, Sessions referred to Trump’s executive order issued in January, telling a news conference that “this disregard for law must end. Today I’m urging states and local jurisdictions to comply with the federal laws,” including 8 U.S. Code, Section 1373.”
That law dictates “communication between government agencies and the Immigration and Naturalization Service” and says that states and local jurisdictions must comply with request by the Immigration and Naturalization Service for information “regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.”
“Moreover,” said Sessions, “the Department of Justice will require that jurisdictions seeking or applying for Department of Justice grants to certify compliance with 1373 as a condition of receiving those awards.”
The news has broad implications for the Bay Area, which has a number of sanctuary counties including San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Alameda, as well as a cities like Oakland and San Jose. Executives at these local entities have been bracing for bad news since late January when President Trump signed orders to clamp down on illegal immigration. That move set up an inevitable showdown between the White House and cities like San Francisco where leaders have vowed to to fight efforts to hand over illegal immigrants to the federal government for deportation.
State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, blasted Sessions’ announcement, saying it was “nothing short of blackmail.”
“Instead of making us safer, the Trump administration is spreading fear and promoting race-based scapegoating,” the Senate leader said in a statement Monday. ”Their gun-to-the-head method to force resistant cities and counties to participate in Trump’s inhumane and counterproductive mass-deportation is unconstitutional and will fail.”
State Senator Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, also took to Twitter, vowing the state would fight the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“Sessions threatens sanctuary cities, slanders immigrants as ‘dangerous criminals,’ Wiener tweeted. “He’s wrong and we will #resist.”
In his January order, Trump announced the federal government would step up its efforts to rein in illegal immigration and as part of that campaign his press spokesman, Sean Spicer, said sanctuary cities would be stripped of federal grants. That could mean real financial pain for the Bay Area: Oakland, for instance, is getting more than $130 million in ongoing and one-time grants from Uncle Sam in its current fiscal year. Those funds, which Trump has threatened to withdraw, subsidizes things like school lunches for poor kids, seismic retrofitting, and additional police officers on the street. San Jose officials say the city received $78 million in federal funding this year.
