Sanctuary cities are being pushed by the administration to enforce federal immigration laws or face repercussions like withdrawal of federal grants.
Los Angeles joined the rank of other cities on Tuesday who had sued the Trump administration for threatening to discontinue federal funding for sanctuary cities. The administration’s threat is being viewed as an arm twisting strategy where sanctuary cities are being forced to implement federal immigration laws and share information on immigrants or else face cuts in federal grants.
The announcement from Los Angeles comes after similar suits filed by the state of California and the city of San Francisco earlier this month.
“We’re suing to block the Trump Administration from unconstitutionally imposing its will on our city,” Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said, NPR reported. “The administration would put L.A. to the untenable choice of risking a key public safety grant or making LAPD an arm of federal civil immigration policy.”
The proponents of the Trump administration, however, believe that sanctuary cities breed crime. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that the sanctuary cities make communities less safe.
“Since 2014, violent crime has risen in Los Angeles. That’s why it is so baffling that the city would challenge policies designed to keep residents of L.A. safer, especially from the scourge of transnational gang activity from MS-13, 18th Street Gang and others,” Justice Department spokesman Devin O’Malley said Tuesday in response to the city’s lawsuit. “Reversing sanctuary city policies is about more than just enforcing federal immigration law by detaining criminals here illegally — it’s about re-establishing a culture of law and order, where crimes are punished and people are deterred from committing them.”
The point of contention between the federal authorities and sanctuary cities is that federal immigration authorities are demanding access to their jails and want the cities to give a 48-hour notice before releasing immigrants identified by the federal agencies.
Earlier this month, California and San Francisco claimed that such threats by the Trump administration are unconstitutional and infringe the basic rights of residents.