In a move that seems more redemptive than anything else, considering the butt-kicking that he received from President Trump, who called him everything, but a child of God, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has found a way to maneuver back into the boss's, good graces, when he responded to the lawsuit that the City of Chicago issued saying that threatening to take away federal funds for crime fighting was self-defeating.
“To a degree perhaps unsurpassed by any other jurisdiction, the political leadership of Chicago has chosen deliberately and intentionally to adopt a policy that obstructs this country’s lawful immigration system,” Sessions said in a prepared statement. “They have demonstrated an open hostility to enforcing laws designed to protect law enforcement — federal, state, and local — and reduce crime, and instead have adopted an official policy of protecting criminal aliens who prey on their own residents.
Not content with merely saying that, the Chicago Sun Times also reported him stating, “This is astounding given the unprecedented violent crime surge in Chicago, with the number of murders in 2016 surpassing both New York and Los Angeles combined. The city’s leaders cannot follow some laws and ignore others and reasonably expect this horrific situation to improve.”
This represents another diversionary move, to play to the Trump base, and divert attention from the very serious charges that could be brought against the president, and his family: their finances, long rumored to have been ill-gotten, and which faced a barrage of criticism, when he refused to release his tax return, a tradition since the Nixon presidency.
Divide and conquer is not a new game, even in Washington, but with the Mueller investigation ratcheting up its focus on the Trump finances, there are shark-infested waters in the Potomac that threaten to engulf Donald Trump, and his children.
Fear often works hand in hand with this type of blowback, and linking it to an old fear of immigrants, and their foreign ways, with threats to those already here, read “real Americans,” then the die has been cast; helped along by candidate Trump who labelled many of the Mexican illegal immigrants as rapists and murderers.
Yet, in the overwhelming crime cases in Chicago, there has been no direct link established between immigrants and non-immigrants, yet the fear has already been cemented.
Historically this is not new, as the nativist portrayals of the Irish immigrants in cartoons of the day, as snapping alligators, with bishop's miters on their heads, (an anti-Catholic swipe) as a young girl, representing America, cowered on the shore, were prevalent in late 19th century America.
“I have been a police officer for more than 30 years, and the federal government’s plans will hamper community policing and public safety,” Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said in response to Sessions. “Undocumented immigrants are not driving violence in Chicago, and that’s why I want our officers focused on community policing and not trying to be the immigration police.”
“Other lawsuits to block the Justice Department from punishing cities shielding illegal immigrants from federal immigration agents have been filed in federal courts in Seattle, and in California: Santa Clara and San Francisco,” noted the Sun TImes.
Just after his 100th day anniversary in office, “a federal judge in California, blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a threat to take away funds from sanctuary cities -- the latest blow from the federal judiciary to President Donald Trump's immigration agenda,” reported CNN.
“In his ruling, Judge William H. Orrick sided with Santa Clara County, the city of San Francisco and other jurisdictions, who argued that a threat to take away federal funds from cities that do not cooperate with some federal immigration enforcement could be unconstitutional.”
“Chicago’s 46-page complaint asks U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber — assigned to the case Monday — to stop the Justice Department from enforcing new conditions it has attached to the grant funds,” reported the Sun TImes.
“To a degree perhaps unsurpassed by any other jurisdiction, the political leadership of Chicago has chosen deliberately and intentionally to adopt a policy that obstructs this country’s lawful immigration system,” Sessions said in a prepared statement. “They have demonstrated an open hostility to enforcing laws designed to protect law enforcement — federal, state, and local — and reduce crime, and instead have adopted an official policy of protecting criminal aliens who prey on their own residents.
Not content with merely saying that, the Chicago Sun Times also reported him stating, “This is astounding given the unprecedented violent crime surge in Chicago, with the number of murders in 2016 surpassing both New York and Los Angeles combined. The city’s leaders cannot follow some laws and ignore others and reasonably expect this horrific situation to improve.”
This represents another diversionary move, to play to the Trump base, and divert attention from the very serious charges that could be brought against the president, and his family: their finances, long rumored to have been ill-gotten, and which faced a barrage of criticism, when he refused to release his tax return, a tradition since the Nixon presidency.
Divide and conquer is not a new game, even in Washington, but with the Mueller investigation ratcheting up its focus on the Trump finances, there are shark-infested waters in the Potomac that threaten to engulf Donald Trump, and his children.
Fear often works hand in hand with this type of blowback, and linking it to an old fear of immigrants, and their foreign ways, with threats to those already here, read “real Americans,” then the die has been cast; helped along by candidate Trump who labelled many of the Mexican illegal immigrants as rapists and murderers.
Yet, in the overwhelming crime cases in Chicago, there has been no direct link established between immigrants and non-immigrants, yet the fear has already been cemented.
Historically this is not new, as the nativist portrayals of the Irish immigrants in cartoons of the day, as snapping alligators, with bishop's miters on their heads, (an anti-Catholic swipe) as a young girl, representing America, cowered on the shore, were prevalent in late 19th century America.
“I have been a police officer for more than 30 years, and the federal government’s plans will hamper community policing and public safety,” Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said in response to Sessions. “Undocumented immigrants are not driving violence in Chicago, and that’s why I want our officers focused on community policing and not trying to be the immigration police.”
“Other lawsuits to block the Justice Department from punishing cities shielding illegal immigrants from federal immigration agents have been filed in federal courts in Seattle, and in California: Santa Clara and San Francisco,” noted the Sun TImes.
Just after his 100th day anniversary in office, “a federal judge in California, blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a threat to take away funds from sanctuary cities -- the latest blow from the federal judiciary to President Donald Trump's immigration agenda,” reported CNN.
“In his ruling, Judge William H. Orrick sided with Santa Clara County, the city of San Francisco and other jurisdictions, who argued that a threat to take away federal funds from cities that do not cooperate with some federal immigration enforcement could be unconstitutional.”
“Chicago’s 46-page complaint asks U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber — assigned to the case Monday — to stop the Justice Department from enforcing new conditions it has attached to the grant funds,” reported the Sun TImes.
In its defense two Chicago lawyers “pointed out that, according to the city’s lawsuit, Congress did not give the Justice Department the power to create new conditions when it created the grant program.”
Or does it? The earlier reports noted that the Santa Clara move “does not block the government from enforcing conditions on federal grants nor does it block the government from creating a definition of sanctuary jurisdictions -- but the government will not be able to block federal funds from going to those cities as Trump ordered.”
DOJ did detail the new rule and conditions sanctuary jurisdictions must follow. The first condition would require the city to give the feds, when they ask for it, a 48-hour heads up of the scheduled release date and time “of an alien in the jurisdiction’s custody.”
“The second would require the city to give the feds access to “any correctional or detention facility in order to meet with an alien . . . and inquire as to his or her right to be or remain in the United States.” However, the city points out in its lawsuit that Chicago does not have a jail — only 18 temporary police “lockup” facilities.”USA Today described the current law: “The city prohibits police from providing federal Immigration and customs officials access to people in police custody, unless they are wanted on a criminal warrant or have serious criminal convictions. Local police are also barred from allowing ICE agents to use their facilities for interviews or investigations and from responding to ICE inquiries or talking to ICE officials about a person’s custody status or release date.”
DOJ did detail the new rule and conditions sanctuary jurisdictions must follow. The first condition would require the city to give the feds, when they ask for it, a 48-hour heads up of the scheduled release date and time “of an alien in the jurisdiction’s custody.”
“The second would require the city to give the feds access to “any correctional or detention facility in order to meet with an alien . . . and inquire as to his or her right to be or remain in the United States.” However, the city points out in its lawsuit that Chicago does not have a jail — only 18 temporary police “lockup” facilities.”USA Today described the current law: “The city prohibits police from providing federal Immigration and customs officials access to people in police custody, unless they are wanted on a criminal warrant or have serious criminal convictions. Local police are also barred from allowing ICE agents to use their facilities for interviews or investigations and from responding to ICE inquiries or talking to ICE officials about a person’s custody status or release date.”
By definition, “Sanctuary cities are jurisdictions that resist federal immigration regulations in order to protect otherwise law-abiding unauthorized residents in the U.S. These municipalities typically allow such individuals to utilize city services and often restrict local officers' ability to target people because of their immigration status or send that data to federal agents in the course of an arrest. Most sanctuary cities send this information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement if a person is affiliated with a gang or wanted for a violent crime.”
Chicago has received federal monies since 2005, and in 2016 there was $2.3 million given last year, mostly used for police vehicles, radios and S.W.A.T. equipment.While the amount is relatively small, city officials fear that this is only the beginning.
“The rhetoric and the threats from this administration embodied in these new conditions imposed on unrelated public safety grant funds are breeding a culture and a climate of fear within the communities in our city,” said Edward Siskel, the head of the city's legal office director, at the courthouse after the lawsuit was filed.
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