San Francisco – In the last national battle on immigration, San Francisco announced on Friday that it was taking on federal legal action contesting the recent directives of the Trump administration to continue local officials who hinder deportation efforts and to retain federal funding So-called sanctuary cities.
“The Trump administration affirms a right that it does not have,” said City Atty. David Chiu said at a press conference announcing the trial. “It is the federal government binding local officials to comply with their will or to face the finish or the pursuit, and it is illegal or authoritarian. And the last time I have checked, we still live in a democracy under the rule of law, and the federal government must follow the law. »»
The trial, which will be filed with the American district court of the North District of California, will focus on two recent directives issued by the United States Ministry of Justice which undertake to retain federal funding of sanctuary cities and threaten civil proceedings and criminal against the State and the premises accused of having hampered the expulsion actions.
A service note from the Department of Justice on January 21 prevents local courts according to which “the federal law prohibits state actors and local actors from resisting, obstructing and not complying with orders and related requests to immigration “and that the laws on the sanctuary” threaten public security and national security and national security. “A more pointed memo on February 5 requires the end of federal financing of cities and states which” illegally interfere with the federal operations of the application of laws “and includes a strategy to” investigate incidents involving such misconduct and must , when supported by evidence, continue violations of federal laws.
Orders have made it possible to panic in immigrant communities while President Trump promises the mass deportations of immigrants without appropriate documentation, as well as confusion and concerns in local jurisdictions as to the revocation of their federal funding S ‘ They do not participate in these efforts.
San Francisco’s trial aims to prevent the federal government from enforcing the directives, alleging that they are unconstitutional and a violation of the rights of the States, the Congress Expenditure Authority and a regular procedure.
San Francisco receives $ 3.1 billion in annual federal funding, according to the city’s prosecutor’s office, money supporting a band of programs, including health, education, transport and infrastructure initiatives. The city receives at least $ 8.7 million a year from the United States Ministry of Justice for Public Security Programs. Chiu said that the withdrawal of federal funding would be “catastrophic” to San Francisco’s ability to pay the services.
San Francisco is one of the many jurisdictions through California who have declared themselves immigrant sanctuaries. The term generally applies to policies that prevent local officials from cooperating with the federal authorities on the tasks of the application of civil immigration.
The California sanctuary law in 2017, California Values Act, prohibits state and local agencies for the application of the law to investigate, question and stop people simply for the purposes of application immigration. The law does not prevent the federal authorities from exercising these application tasks in California. And this allows local police to cooperate with federal immigration officials in limited circumstances, especially in cases involving immigrants found guilty of certain violent and crimes.
Under the Sanctuary city lawCity employees and city property cannot be used to “investigate, quote, stop, hold, transfer or hold a person” for the purposes of the application of immigration.
Chiu said the trial was more urgent after the Trump administration continued Chicago and the Illinois state on Thursday, alleging that their sanctuary policies thwarted the application of federal immigration.
During Trump’s first term, San Francisco managed to continue the administration on a similar directive to limit the federal money which flows towards cities which did not help federal agents to the application of immigration. Chiu said on Friday that the federal government still had the right to implement immigration measures and that it is within the authority of San Francisco not to help deportations.
“No one interferes with the ability of the federal government to do their job,” said Chiu.
The mayor of San Francisco, Daniel Lurie, has echoed this feeling: “My priority is to protect the San Franciscans, which means that local police are focusing on local public security,” said Lurie in A prepared press release. “The long -standing policies of our city generally prohibit local police to participate in the federal application of immigration, and these policies make us safer – that is why I will maintain them.”
San Francisco joins the county of Santa Clara to direct the judicial challenge. A coalition of jurisdictions signed the trial, notably Portland, Oregon; New Haven, Conn.; and King County, Wash.
“The federal government cannot requisition our local government. They cannot requisition our local resources, and they cannot requisition our local police to help them lead a vision of mass expulsion, “said Tony Lopresti, lawyer for the county of Santa Clara , during the press conference.
California Daily Newspapers
