AG Jeff Sessions: Sanctuary cities ‘endangering lives of every American’

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“.

“DUIs, assaults, burglaries, drug crimes, gang crimes, rapes, crimes against children and murders”, the attorney general said.

Cities across NY are taking different stances on how to deal with President Trump’s recent immigration orders.

“I strongly oppose Sessions’ new policy”, Merkley said.

“This administration not only is trying to bully law enforcement and make them ICE agents, but they’re trying to bully immigrant families”, Perez said in a statement Monday”.

“Pressuring local law enforcement to take on immigration responsibilities undercuts the very oath they take to “serve and protect” the entirety of their community”, Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, told NPR after Trump’s January executive order.

In July 2016, the Obama Justice Department under Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced that cities not in compliance with federal immigration law would no longer be getting these government grants.

Seattle mayor Ed Murray, meanwhile, has insisted that Seattle will remain a sanctuary city despite threats from the Trump administration.

“That would be such a huge mistake”, Sessions said.

“The American people are fed up with these reckless and unsafe policies that are literally getting Americans killed”, the congressman said.

The counties of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino, which have not declared themselves sanctuary jurisdictions, also said they are in compliance with both state and federal laws.

More than $4.1 billion will be awarded this year, Sessions said.

According to Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law president and executive director Kristen Clarke, “Attorney General Jeff Sessions seeks to create a police state in which local and state law enforcement are acting at the behest of the federal government to round up immigrants in communities across the country”.

Sessions said, “Today I am urging all states and local jurisdictions to comply with all federal laws, including 8 U.S.C. Section 1373”.

Sessions’ DOJ is taking it a step further, though. “Texas joins the Trump administration in its commitment to end sanctuary cities, and I look forward to signing legislation that bans these unsafe policies in Texas once and for all”.

At a Manhattan conference, lawmakers from across the nation are brainstorming, thinking how they can protect undocumented immigrants in their cities. He said Albuquerque gets about $5 million a year in DOJ grants, “everything from cops grants to bulletproof vests”.