William Barr announces new actions against sanctuary cities

  Donald Trump had vowed to take action against sanctuary cities and this included executive action to withhold some federal money to sanctuary cities if they continued to be in non-compliance with federal law. This was immediately challenged in the courts and the last report I saw the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the President’s favor. (If this has changed I am sure somebody will let me know.)

  It is now being reported here that William Barr’s Department of Justice is announcing sweeping new sanctions against sanctuary cities. Here is more:

Charging that so-called “sanctuary” cities that protect illegal immigrants are jeopardizing domestic security, Attorney General Bill Barr announced a slew of additional sanctions that he called a “significant escalation” against left-wing local and state governments that obstruct the “lawful functioning of our nation’s immigration system.”

Speaking at the National Sheriff’s Association 2020 Winter Legislative and Technology Conference in Washington, D.C., Barr said the Justice Department would immediately file multiple lawsuits against sanctuary jurisdictions for unconstitutionally interfering with federal immigration enforcement, and implement unprecedented national reviews of left-wing sanctuary governments and prosecutors.

In addition to filing suits against Washington and New Jersey:

“Further, we are reviewing the practices, policies, and laws of other jurisdictions across the country.  This includes assessing whether jurisdictions are complying with our criminal laws, in particular the criminal statute that prohibits the harboring or shielding of aliens in the United States,” Barr added, noting that the DOJ would support DHS with “federal subpoenas to access information about criminal aliens in the custody of uncooperative jurisdictions.”

And, Barr said, “we are meticulously reviewing the actions of certain district attorneys who have adopted policies of charging foreign nationals with lesser offenses for the express purpose of avoiding the federal immigration consequences of those nationals’ criminal conduct.  In pursuing their personal ambitions and misguided notions of equal justice, these district attorneys are systematically violating the rule of law and may even be unlawfully discriminating against American citizens.”

    It looks like the Trump administration is getting serious about this but of course we know that when it comes to the court system nothing is a given…

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium