President Trump said his administration is moving forward in withholding funding from sanctuary cities on Thursday, after an appeals court ruled that such a move was legal. This has been part of the administration’s push to end the controversial policies that it says puts American citizens at risk.
“As per recent Federal Court ruling, the Federal Government will be withholding funds from Sanctuary Cities. They should change their status and go non-Sanctuary,” he said. “Do not protect criminals!”
As per recent Federal Court ruling, the Federal Government will be withholding funds from Sanctuary Cities. They should change their status and go non-Sanctuary. Do not protect criminals!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2020
The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York last month overturned a lower court ruling that stopped the administration’s 2017 move to withhold grant money from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, which dispenses over $250 million a year to state and local criminal justice efforts.
Since the decision conflicts with rulings from other appellate courts concerning sanctuary policies, a Supreme Court review is likely.
New York City and liberal states, including New York, Washington, Massachusetts and Connecticut, sued the government, and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York backed them – ordering the money be released and stopping the government from putting immigration-related conditions on grants, Fox News reported.
But the appeals court ruled that it “cannot agree that the federal government must be enjoined from imposing the challenged conditions on the federal grants here at issue.”
Sanctuaries policies harshly limit local cooperation with ICE. Consequently, many violent predators have been released from custody when deportation was in order.
Regardless of liberal talking points regarding Sanctuary policies, Trump administration officials have consistently pointed to a host of cases when an illegal immigrant has been released from custody after a detainer was ignored and gone on to re-offend.
In a letter to de Blasio last month, ICE Acting Director Matt Albence noted that ICE’s New York City Enforcement and Removals Office issued detainers on 7,526 subjects who had criminal histories, including 3,500 assaults, 1,500 DUIs, 1,000 sex crimes, 1,000 weapons offenses, 500 robberies and 200 homicides.
Moreover, Albence accused the state of New York of putting lives at risk by shutting federal immigration authorities out of state Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) databases even though access is granted to Canadian law enforcement officials.
“Information is the lifeblood of law enforcement. If we learned anything from 9/11 it’s that information needs to be shared quickly and fully, and what this has done is to roll back the clock,” Acting ICE Director Matt Albence told Fox News in an interview Friday. “This is a pre-9/11 mentality in a post-9/11 world and it’s dangerous.”
The administration has deployed elite Border Patrol agents to sanctuary cities to help ICE track down and detain illegal immigrants.
Furthermore, the Justice Department recently announced a slew of measures, and Trump has called on Congress to pass legislation that would allow victims of crimes committed by illegal immigrants to sue sanctuary cities and states.
