Justice Department sends compliance letters to 'crumbling' sanctuary jurisdictions
The U.S. Justice Department announced Friday that it has sent compliance letters to nine sanctuary jurisdictions, saying that many of them are “crumbling under the weight of illegal immigration and violent crime.”
The letters warned the jurisdictions that they could lose federal grants if they don’t demonstrate compliance with a federal law that requires sharing of immigration information, report the New York Times and NPR.
The letters were sent to Chicago, New Orleans, Philadelphia, New York City, California, Cook County (which includes Chicago), Law Vegas County, Miami-Dade County and Milwaukee County.
The DOJ press release said many of the jurisdictions are plagued by violent crime and illegal immigration and singled out three jurisdictions in particular.
“The number of murders in Chicago has skyrocketed, rising more than 50 percent from the 2015 levels,” the release said. “New York City continues to see gang murder after gang murder, the predictable consequence of the city’s ‘soft on crime’ stance. And just several weeks ago in California’s Bay Area, after a raid captured 11 MS-13 members on charges including murder, extortion and drug trafficking, city officials seemed more concerned with reassuring illegal immigrants that the raid was unrelated to immigration than with warning other MS-13 members that they were next.”
Sessions had warned about the possible loss of grants last month if jurisdictions don’t comply with the law known as Section 1373.
