Sessions: Sanctuary cities undermine law’s moral authority

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday criticized sanctuary cities that try to protect immigrants in the country illegally as places that “undermine the moral authority of the law.”

He made the comments a day after the Trump administration appealed a judge’s ruling blocking its efforts to withhold money from the cities.

Sessions, speaking to law enforcement officers in a sanctuary city in the sanctuary state of Oregon, urged officials who have decided that local police should not cooperate with federal immigration agents to reconsider those policies.

As he spoke, protesters lined the streets outside the Portland field office of the U.S. cities receive are not an entitlement, and cannot be given to sanctuary cities that he said frustrate efforts to reduce crime.

“Rather than reconsider their policies, these sanctuary jurisdictions feign outrage when they lose federal funds as a direct result of actions designed to nullify plain federal law,” Sessions said.

A Chicago judge last Friday at least temporarily blocked the administration’s attempt to withhold one particular public safety grant from cities that don’t cooperate.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge William Orrick rejected the administration’s argument that the executive order applies only to a relatively small pot of money and said Trump cannot set new conditions on spending approved by Congress

The Chicago lawsuit blocked late last week was in response to the administration’s decision to attach immigration restrictions to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program.

Sessions told the law enforcement officers in Portland that city officials in “these sanctuary jurisdictions feign outrage when they lose federal funds as a direct result of actions designed to nullify plain federal law.”

And he accused Portland and other cities of suing the administration “so that they can keep receiving taxpayer-funded grants while continuing to impede federal immigration enforcement.”

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who did not attend the speech, wrote a letter to the Sessions saying that the city celebrates diversity and that “our local laws support these values and we are better for it.”

“It is for these reasons that I strongly oppose the Trump administration’s efforts to coerce local law enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration laws,” wrote Wheeler, a Democrat.

Sessions highlighted the case of Sergio Martinez, a man accused of assaulting two women in July after his release from a Portland jail.



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Edited by: Michael Saunders

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