The Justice Department sent a letter to King County and other jurisdictions around the country warning they could be legally forced to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
The Justice Department ramped up pressure Wednesday on so-called sanctuary cities seeking public-safety grant money, warning they could be legally forced to prove they are cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
The move, which included a letter to King County, prompted immediate backlash, with mayors from across the country saying they would boycott a planned meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump on Wednesday afternoon.
Officials sent letters to roughly two dozen jurisdictions threatening to issue subpoenas if they don’t willingly relinquish documents showing they aren’t withholding information about the citizenship or immigration status of people in custody. The department has repeatedly threatened to deny millions of dollars in important grant money to communities that refuse to comply with a federal statute requiring information-sharing with federal authorities, as part of the Trump administration’s promised crackdown on cities and states that refuse to help enforce U.S. immigration laws.
Metropolitan King County Council Chairman Joe McDermott expressed both bafflement and outrage at the DOJ letter, which threatened to subpoena county policies and records. The county is among dozens of jurisdictions that have proclaimed themselves “welcoming cities” to undocumented immigrants.
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“This administration has spent the last year trying to bully and intimidate local jurisdictions, and we won’t stand for it,” McDermott said. “This is nothing more than a press stunt.”
McDermott said all federal funding and grants in the county remain intact.
He explained that the county doesn’t ask people about their immigration status — whether they’re being booked into jail or appearing at a local health clinic — so the county doesn’t have the information the Department of Homeland Security and immigration officials are seeking.
Many cities have been openly defiant in the face of the threats, with lawsuits pending in Chicago and Philadelphia, among others, over whether the administration has overstepped its authority by seeking to withhold grant money.
Seattle did not receive the letter, but Mayor Jenny Durkan was copied on the one sent to King County, and she released a statement Wednesday.
“As a former U.S. Attorney, I’m prepared for a legal fight with this administration. Let’s be clear: It’s a fight that Donald Trump will lose,” the statement said. “With today’s announcement, it appears Seattle has successfully made the case to remain a welcoming city. But the fight to protect our citizens in all of King County continues.”
The move angered members of the U.S. Conference of Mayors who had been set to meet with Trump on Wednesday to discuss infrastructure, drug addiction and other topics.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, the conference president, said in a statement, “The Trump administration’s decision to threaten mayors and demonize immigrants yet again — and use cities as political props in the process — has made this meeting untenable.”
He added: “The U.S. Conference of Mayors is proud to be a bipartisan organization. But an attack on mayors who lead welcoming cities is an attack on everyone in our conference.”
New York’s Bill de Blasio announced his boycott on Twitter.
“I will NOT be attending today’s meeting at the White House after @realDonaldTrump’s Department of Justice decided to renew their racist assault on our immigrant communities,” he wrote, adding that the move “doesn’t make us safer and it violates America’s core values.”
Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the White House has been very clear that it doesn’t support sanctuary cities and supports enforcing and following the law. “If mayors have a problem with that, they should talk to the Congress, the people that pass the laws. The Department of Justice enforces them, and as long as that is the law, the Department of Justice is going to strongly enforce it.”
As for the mayors, she said the White House would love to work with them, “but we cannot allow people to pick and choose what laws they want to follow.”
“If we have a country with no laws, then nothing matters,” Sanders added.
The 23 jurisdictions that received letters Wednesday include cities in Illinois, New York, California, New Mexico, Mississippi, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Vermont and Oregon. Officials said the places were previously warned that they need to provide information about their policies to be eligible to receive grants that pay for everything from bulletproof vests to officer overtime.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has blamed “sanctuary-city” policies for crime and gang violence, saying Wednesday, “We have seen too many examples of the threat to public safety represented by jurisdictions that actively thwart the federal government’s immigration enforcement — enough is enough.”
But defenders of sanctuary-city practices say they actually improve public safety by promoting trust among law enforcement and immigrant communities and reserving scarce police resources for other, more urgent crime-fighting needs.