President Trump, whose attempts to crack down on foreigners entering the country illegally repeatedly have been derailed by activist federal judges favoring the lawbreakers, says he's not dropping his latest attempt.
"See you in the Supreme Court!" he tweeted Wednesday.
"First the Ninth Circuit rules against the ban & now it hits again on sanctuary cities – both ridiculous rulings."
The latest fight is over Trump's executive order to withhold certain federal funds from "sanctuary" cities, counties or states that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
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The most recent federal judicial activism came Tuesday from Judge William H. Orrick, who has been accused by a political blog of buying his court seat by accepting his appointment from President Obama shortly after "bundling and donating at least $230,000" to the former president's campaign.
Orrick said the U.S. government must continue providing money to local governments that are in open defiance of federal law. His order came in a case brought by Santa Clara County and the County of San Francisco.
Orrick issued a temporary injunction blocking the order, arguing the counties have demonstrated that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their challenge to Section 9(a) of Trump's executive order and would otherwise suffer irreparable harm.
The Gateway Pundit blog commented that "the trend sweeping liberal cities and states that are protecting criminal aliens (because if you are here illegally, you are a criminal) has gone another step too far."
"We are giving liberties to those who do not in any capacity deserve them. We are jeopardizing our financial well-being as well as the well-being of REAL Americans."
The counties that complained claimed the executive order affected all federal funding, but Department of Justice lawyers explained it only affected the programs they specifically mentioned.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad Readler explained the funding cutoff was for three specific DOJ and DHS grant programs "that require complying with a federal law that local governments not block officials from providing people's immigration status."
The Trump administration issued the order, "Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States," because sanctuary cities allow dangerous criminals to return to the streets.
"It is the policy of the executive branch to ensure, to the fullest extent of the law, that a state, or a political subdivision of a state, shall comply with [federal law]," the order states.
The order says jurisdictions that "willfully refuse to comply" are "not eligible" for federal grants.
Orrick is within the jurisdiction of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which suspended Trump's executive order to temporarily ban travelers from seven terror hot spots.
"Out of our very big country, with many choices, does everyone notice that both the 'ban' case and now the 'sanctuary' case is brought in the Ninth Circuit, which has a terrible record of being overturned (close to 80 percent)," Trump tweeted. "They used to call this 'judge shopping!' Messy system."
In fact, the 9th Circuit is overturned in about four out of five cases on appeal.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said, "San Francisco, and cities like it, are putting the well-being of criminal aliens before the safety of our citizens, and those city officials who authored these policies have the blood of dead Americans on their hands."
He said the case is "yet one more example of egregious overreach by a single, unelected district judge."
"But we are confident we will ultimately prevail in the Supreme Court, just as we will prevail in our lawful efforts to impose immigration restrictions necessary to keep terrorists out of the United States."
WND reported last month when U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said jurisdictions must demonstrate they are complying with federal immigration laws to receive financial grants from the Justice Department.
He identified three grant programs – the COPS grants, Byrne grants and State Criminal Alien Assistance Program money – that already require certification.
The Obama administration didn’t end up enforcing that policy, but Sessions said he'll begin.
Watch Sessions' statements:
Sessions said:
According to one recent poll, 80 percent of Americans believe that cities that make arrests — that arrest illegal immigrants for crimes should be required to turn them over to immigration authorities. Unfortunately, some states and cities have adopted policies designed to frustrate this enforcement of immigration laws. This includes refusing to detain known felons under federal detainer requests or otherwise failing to comply with these laws. For example, the Department of Homeland Security recently issued a report showing that in a single week, there were more than 200 instances of jurisdictions refusing to honor I.C.E. Detainer requests with respect to individuals charged or convicted of a serious crime. These charges and convictions against these aliens include drug trafficking, hit-and-run, rape, sex offenses against a child and even murder. Such policies cannot continue. They make our nation less safe by putting dangerous criminals back on the streets.
Today, I am urging states and local jurisdictions to comply with these federal laws, including 8 U.S.C. Section 1373. Moreover, the Department of Justice will require that jurisdictions seeking or applying for Department of Justice grants to certify compliance with 1373 as a condition of receiving those awards. This policy is entirely consistent with the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs guidance that was issued just last summer under the previous administration. This guidance requires state and local jurisdictions to comply and certify compliance with Section 1373 in order to be eligible for OJP grants. It also made clear that failure to remedy violations could result in withholding grants, termination of grants, and disbarment or ineligibility for future grants. I strongly urge our nation’s states and cities and counties to consider carefully the harm they are doing to their citizens by refusing to enforce immigration laws and to rethink these policies. Such policies make their cities and states less safe. Public safety as well as national security are at stake and put them at risk of losing federal dollars.
The issue of sanctuary cities arose recently when it was reported by WND, Fox News and other news outlets that a 14-year-old girl had been brutally raped by two illegal aliens in a Rockville, Maryland, high-school bathroom. The two alleged rapists were ages 17 and 18 and had been placed in the ninth grade at the school.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, there are more than 300 sanctuary cities and counties in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security has released a list of the 100 worst offenders.
WND also reported that sanctuary cities experience higher crime rates than do non-sanctuary cities.
A WND analysis confirmed an August 2016 study of the relationship between sanctuary-city policies and crime rates shows that cities refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities consistently have significantly higher violent crimes rates than do non-sanctuary cities with similar populations and demographics.
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