Justice Division releases a brand new record of sanctuary jurisdictions. L.A. County is just not on it
The Division of Justice printed a brand new record Tuesday of ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions that it claims have insurance policies, legal guidelines or laws that hinder enforcement of federal immigration legal guidelines.
However whereas the record contains the Trump administration’s typical targets — the town of Los Angeles and the state of California — one native space is just not on it: L.A. County.
Los Angeles county has not formally declared itself a sanctuary jurisdiction. Nevertheless, the county that’s residence to greater than 2 million residents who’re undocumented or residing with undocumented members of the family, was included on a earlier record of sanctuary jurisdictions printed by the Division of Homeland Safety in Could. That record was subsequently eliminated from the DHS web site.
In a information launch, the Division of Justice mentioned Tuesday that the brand new federal record of 35 cities, counties and states is “not exhaustive” and “will probably be up to date as federal authorities collect additional info.”
A spokesperson for the Justice Division didn’t reply questions from The Instances about why L.A. County was not on the record.
“These designations had been made after an intensive evaluation of documented legal guidelines, ordinances, and government directives by the listed jurisdictions,” the company states on its web site. “This preliminary record of designated Sanctuary Jurisdictions will probably be reviewed repeatedly, to incorporate extra jurisdictions and take away jurisdictions which have remediated their insurance policies, practices, and legal guidelines. Every state, county, and metropolis may have a possibility to answer its placement on the record.”
The brand new record is simply the newest effort by the Trump administration to ramp up stress on cities, counties and states which have insurance policies or legal guidelines that limit collaboration with federal immigration authorities.
“Sanctuary insurance policies impede regulation enforcement and put Americans in danger by design,” Lawyer Common Pamela Bondi mentioned in a press release Tuesday. “The Division of Justice will proceed bringing litigation in opposition to sanctuary jurisdictions and work carefully with the Division of Homeland Safety to eradicate these dangerous insurance policies across the nation.”
California is considered one of 13 states, totally on the west coast and within the northeast, that the Trump administration has recognized as having insurance policies or legal guidelines that impede federal immigration brokers. Solely 4 county jurisdictions are included within the Division of Justice record: Baltimore County, MD; Cook dinner County, IL; San Diego, County and San Francisco County. Three of the 18 cities on the record — Berkeley, Los Angeles and San Francisco — are in California.
In April, Trump signed an Govt Order, ‘Defending American Communities from Felony Aliens, ’ directing the Justice Division to work with DHS to publish an inventory of jurisdictions that “proceed to make use of their authority to violate, hinder, and defy the enforcement of Federal immigration legal guidelines.”
The Justice Division has since taken authorized motion in opposition to numerous sanctuary jurisdictions.
In June, the company filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to the town of Los Angeles, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, and the L.A. Metropolis Council that described L.A.’s sanctuary regulation as “unlawful.”
Officers, the lawsuit mentioned, “refuse to cooperate or share info, even when requested, with federal immigration authorities.”
“Jurisdictions like Los Angeles that flout federal regulation by prioritizing unlawful aliens over Americans are undermining regulation enforcement at each stage,” Bondi mentioned in a June assertion. “It ends below President Trump.”
In July, Bondi introduced a “main victory” for the Division of Justice: the town of Louisville, Kentucky, she mentioned, was ditching its sanctuary insurance policies after receiving a letter from her workplace.
“This could set an instance to different cities,” Bondi mentioned on X. “As an alternative of forcing us to sue you — which we’ll, with out hesitation — observe the regulation, eliminate sanctuary insurance policies, and work with us to repair the unlawful immigration disaster.
On Tuesday, the Justice Division mentioned in a information launch that “the federal authorities will help any jurisdiction that needs to be taken off this record to determine and get rid of their sanctuary insurance policies.”
This story will probably be up to date.
