WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is directing its federal prosecutors to investigate any state or local officials who obstruct increased immigration enforcement under the Trump administration, according to a memo to all staff obtained by The Associated. Press Wednesday.
The memo, authored by Acting Assistant Attorney General Emil Bove, also directs the Justice Department’s Civil Division to help identify state and local laws and policies that “threaten to impede” the Justice Department’s immigration initiatives. Trump administration and potentially challenge them in court.
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The memo signals a stark shift in the priorities of President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration, as prosecutors have unequivocally declared they will be on the front lines of an administration-wide effort to crack down on illegal immigration and border crime and that they were expected. implementing the policy vision of President Donald Trump’s Republican White House on violent crime, the threat of international gangs and drug trafficking.
“Indeed, it is the responsibility of the Department of Justice to defend the Constitution and, therefore, lawfully execute the policies that the American people elected President Trump to implement,” wrote Bove, who, before joining the administration, was part of the legal team. who defended Trump against two criminal cases brought by the Justice Department.
“Sanctuary” has no legal definition, but the term encompasses a range of protections for immigrants, particularly those living in the United States illegally. Most often, the laws place legal limits on law enforcement in these jurisdictions on how they can cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
Courts have repeatedly upheld most sanctuary laws.
In Chicago, which has some of the strictest sanctuary protections in the country, city leaders have ignored the possibility of investigations. The nation’s third-largest city has been a sanctuary city for decades, limiting cooperation between police and federal immigration agents.
“If the feds want to investigate, that’s their prerogative,” said Alderman Andre Vasqez, who is Mayor Brandon Johnson’s chosen chair of the City Council’s immigration committee.
Vasquez, the son of two Guatemalan immigrants, pointed to a 2016 campaign rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago that Trump abruptly abandoned as the crowd of noisy protesters grew. This cancellation remains an honor for many young activists in the Democratic stronghold.
“There will always be that kind of relationship between Chicago, President Trump and the Republican Party,” Vasquez said. “I was born and raised in Chicago, in an immigrant family. It will take more to scare me a little.
Bove’s memo says federal prosecutors must “take all necessary steps to protect the public and secure the U.S. border by removing illegal aliens from the country and prosecuting illegal aliens for crimes committed under U.S. jurisdiction.”
The memo suggests there will be an increase in immigration cases under the new administration, directing U.S. attorneys’ offices across the country to inform courts of its policy “and develop processes to handle the growing number of resulting prosecutions. Any decision by federal prosecutors to decline to prosecute immigration violations must be disclosed to Justice Department headquarters in so-called emergency reports, which are used to notify leaders of law enforcement emergencies or important matters of national concern .
It also directs prosecutors to investigate possible criminal charges against state and local officials who obstruct or impede federal functions. As potential avenues for prosecution, the memo cites a conspiracy offense as well as a law prohibiting illegal harboring of people in the country.
“Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing, or failing to comply with lawful immigration-related orders and requests,” the memo said. “The U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Department of Justice’s litigation units will investigate incidents involving such misconduct for possible prosecution. »
The Justice Department also directs the FBI’s joint terrorism task forces to “assist in carrying out President Trump’s immigration initiatives,” although the memo does not specify what that work might entail. . He also ordered the department’s components, such as the FBI and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, to forward to the Department of Homeland Security any “identifying information” they may have on people suspected of being illegally in the country “for the sole purpose of facilitating appropriate removals, enforcement actions, and immigration-related investigations and prosecutions.”
The memo also says the department will return to the principle of charging defendants with the most serious crime it can prove, a staple position of Republican-led departments aimed at stripping prosecutorial discretion to charge a felony offense. lesser magnitude. And it rolls back policies implemented by Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland, including one aimed at ending sentencing disparities that imposed harsher penalties for different forms of cocaine.
It is common for Justice departments to shift their law enforcement priorities under a new presidential administration, in line with the White House’s policy ambitions. The memo reflects the constant tug of war between Democratic and Republican administrations over how best to allocate resources to what officials see as the most pressing threat of the time.
Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report.
