DOJ threatens local officials on migrant crackdown

What happened

The Justice Department directed federal prosecutors Wednesday to investigate and potentially file criminal charges against state and local officials deemed to be "resisting, obstructing and otherwise failing to comply" with the Trump administration's ramped-up migrant deportation efforts.

Who said what

The memo, signed by acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, was an "apparent warning to the dozens of so-called sanctuary jurisdictions across America," The Associated Press said. Those cities and states typically limit cooperation between police and federal immigration officials, except on serious or violent crimes.

Bove, one of President Donald Trump's former criminal defense lawyers, said federal laws "require state and local actors to comply with the executive branch's immigration enforcement initiatives." But courts have "repeatedly upheld most sanctuary laws," the AP said, and legal experts were skeptical charges of the kind Bove envisioned "would have any traction in court."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"Nothing obligates local law enforcement to cooperate with federal law enforcement on any issue," said constitutional scholar and immigration lawyer Robert J. McWhirter to the AP. "Not even bank robbery." California Attorney General Rob Bonta dismissed the memo as a Trump "scare tactic" to intimidate "state and local law enforcement into carrying out his mass deportation agenda for him," adding that his office was ready should the "vague threats turn to illegal action."

What next?

Bove also redirected FBI counterterrorism task forces to shift focus from terrorism to assisting in the "execution of President Trump's immigration-related initiatives," and gave federal law enforcement agencies 60 days to scour their records for any information on immigrants living illegally in the U.S. The memo is "likely to face fierce blowback from legal advocacy groups" and sanctuary jurisdictions that "frustrated" Trump's "mass deportation plans during his first term," The Washington Post said.