President Donald Trump on Wednesday directed prosecutors to criminally probe state and local officials who resist, obstruct or fail to comply with his immigration enforcement efforts.
That’s according to a memo seen by Reuters, written by the deputy U.S. attorney general.
“It's an escalation of the use of the Justice Department's criminal investigative power. Obviously, you know, people who are living in the country illegally or people who are employing those people illegally have always faced potential criminal investigation. This adds a new category of people who could face investigation, which is city and state officials, some of them Democrats, some of them in Democratic, very heavily Democratic constituencies and some in communities that have declared themselves to be sanctuary communities that didn't want to go along with federal immigrations crackdowns and warning them that they, too, could face criminal consequences.”
California's Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, dismissed Trump's directive as a "scare tactic" during a Wednesday interview on CNN.
Still, it sets up potential confrontations with local officials in so-called sanctuary cities.
"The first Trump administration, they came out of the gate very quickly with some policies that very quickly ran into opposition in Democratic cities and states ... and this is a sign that they're trying to plan ahead and they're trying to eliminate things that could serve as barriers."
Shortly after taking office, Trump declared illegal immigration a national emergency.
A U.S. official said on Wednesday that the military would send 1,000 additional active-duty troops to the southern border.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.