DOJ says it will prosecute local officials over immigration enforcement
(Photo by Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS)
The Trump administration late Tuesday directed federal prosecutors nationwide to investigate and potentially prosecute state and local officials who don’t cooperate with the president’s plans to carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in U.S. history, according to a document obtained by The Washington Post.
In a memo to Justice Department employees, acting deputy Attorney General Emil Bove wrote that the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, and other legal authorities, “require state and local actors to comply with the Executive Branch’s immigration enforcement initiatives.”
“Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands,” wrote Bove, a former federal prosecutor who spent recent years in private practice and was one of President Donald Trump’s defense lawyers in his criminal cases.
Bove ordered U.S. attorneys’ offices nationwide to “investigate incidents involving any such misconduct for potential prosecution,” including for harboring an immigrant in the United States illegally, failing to share information about a person’s immigration status with the federal government, and conspiracy - crimes that carry potential prison terms upon conviction.
Any refusals to prosecute someone for “resistance, obstruction or other noncompliance” with commands or requests from U.S. immigration officers will be sent to the Justice Department as an “urgent” report, the memo says.
Bove’s directive, which responds to executive orders Trump signed on his first day in office Monday, is likely to face fierce blowback from legal advocacy groups and officials in cities and states led by Democrats. Those jurisdictions tussled with Trump over the issue during his first term.
Many lawyers say it is legal for state and local officials to stay out of most immigration enforcement. City officials in Chicago reaffirmed their refusal to cooperate with enforcement last week amid rumors of imminent immigration raids in that city.
Some sanctuary jurisdictions work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that detains and deports immigrants, to turn over serious criminals from their prisons. But officials in sanctuary cities say deporting undocumented immigrants who are working, raising families and otherwise following the law destabilizes their communities and makes immigrants afraid to report crimes. Police also worry that they could be breaking the law by jailing people for immigration offenses, which are civil violations, not crimes.
Bove’s memo refers to a newly established “Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group” within the Justice Department that is charged with identifying state and local laws or policies inconsistent with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement goals. The memo instructs the department’s civil division to “take legal action to challenge such laws” where appropriate.
Former president Joe Biden had urged Congress, without success, to grant the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States a path to citizenship. Trump, however, has issued a series of executive orders since taking office Monday that could make them all vulnerable to deportation.
Trump has promised to launch “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” directed agencies across the federal government, including the Defense Department, to make immigration enforcement a priority, and called for the creation of joint task forces of state, local and federal agents to enforce immigration laws.
Trump and his surrogates have repeatedly threatened to punish sanctuary jurisdictions such as Chicago that limit law enforcement cooperation with ICE.
Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, was one of Trump’s criminal defense attorneys in the president’s trial on charges that he falsified documents related to a hush money payment to an adult-film star during his 2016 campaign. Trump was convicted of felony charges and sentenced to an “unconditional discharge” this month.
Perry Stein contributed to this report.
