Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the Trump administration should drop its conditions on so-called sanctuary cities. Photo by REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo.CHICAGO — The Trump administration’s policy of withholding public safety grants from so-called sanctuary cities unless they agree to tougher enforcement of immigration laws is constitutional and also vital to keeping crime in check,the Department of Justice argues in a new filing opposing Chicago’s request for a court order freezing the policy.
The 27-page court document was filed late Thursday in U.
S. District Court in Chicago, where the nations third largest city sued Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Aug. 7. The new filing responds to Chicago’s motion for a preliminary injunction that would halt the safety-grants policy at least until the civil case plays out.
Chicago’s lawsuit focuses on conditions set by Sessions for cities to qualify for the grants, and including that they give federal agents access to detention facilities. Sessions has said tougher enforcement of immigration laws will attend reduce crime. Many cities say there’s no evidence that’s true.
READ MORE: New Justice Department rules intensify crackdown on sanctuary citiesThursday’s filing argues that tying public safety grants to conditions isn’t new. It says cities had to meet more than 50 special conditions,including demonstrating compliance with civil rights laws, to receive grants in 2016, and none of which generated … legal challenges” from Chicago.
A Friday statement from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office says the Trump administration should “drop these new conditions … rather than try to salvage its ill-conceived and unlawful attempt to force cities” to choose between public safety funding and providing sanctuary to immigrants.
The Justice Department filing contends Chicago jumped to conclusions approximately the conditions and sued before the conditions were finalized.
Chicago has received the public safety grants since 2005,spending $33 million to buy police cars during that period; it got $2.3 million final year.The new filing says Chicago can’t point to any irreparable harm justifying an instant court order halting the policy, saying “the funding at issue under the program amounts to less than one tenth of one percent of the City’s budget.”The post Trump administration pushes back against Chicago lawsuit over sanctuary city policy appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Source: thetakeaway.org