Trump administration warns city, state officials not to resist immigration crackdown

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s administration has directed U.S. prosecutors to criminally probe state and local officials who resist immigration enforcement efforts, intensifying a sweeping crackdown that Trump launched the day he took office.

In a memo to Justice Department staff seen by Reuters, Trump’s acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove, wrote, “Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing or otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands and requests.”

The policy was issued as the new Republican administration prepares to step up policing of illegal immigration in cities with significant migrant populations, setting up potential confrontations with local officials in so-called sanctuary cities such as New York and Chicago that limit cooperation with such efforts.

The new memo underscored how Trump’s Justice Department may try to back his immigration agenda by expanding threats of criminal charges beyond immigrants or those who employ them to city and state government officials. It is the latest in a series of executive actions since Trump took office on Monday to combat immigration, his top priority.

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Donald Trump declared illegal immigration a national emergency on Monday, tasking the U.S. military with aiding border security, issuing a broad ban on asylum and taking steps to restrict citizenship for children born on American soil. A U.S. official said on Wednesday the military would dispatch 1,000 additional active-duty troops to the Mexico-U.S. border.

Donald Trump also instructed the attorney general to seek capital punishment against illegal immigrants who commit crimes such as murder that are potentially punishable by death.

The administration has rescinded Biden-era guidance limiting immigration arrests near sensitive places, such as schools and churches, and expanded immigration officers’ power to deport migrants who cannot prove they have been in the U.S. for longer than two years, paving the way for increased enforcement.

Trump has also taken aim at federal diversity programs, ordering agencies to put officials overseeing diversity, equity and inclusion programs on leave by Wednesday and directing them to shut down their DEI offices by the end of the month.

The swift actions signal Trump’s intention to fulfill many of his culture-war campaign promises by pushing the limits of executive power even further than he did during his first term in office from 2017 to 2021.

Americans are sharply divided on Trump’s plans for mass deportations. A new Reuters/Ipsos survey showed 39% agreed with a statement that “illegal immigrants should be arrested and put in detention camps while awaiting deportation hearings,” while 42% disagreed and the rest were unsure.

Some 46% of respondents said they approved of how Trump was handling immigration policy, compared with 39% who disapproved. Most respondents who backed mass arrests identified as Republicans, while most who did not were Democrats.

The poll, which surveyed adults nationwide on Jan. 20-21, found higher levels of support for making it harder for people to enter the country. Some 58% of respondents agreed with a statement that the U.S. should “dramatically reduce the number of migrants allowed to claim asylum at the border” while 22% disagreed.

‘SCARE TACTIC’

State and local officials who resist or obstruct immigration enforcement could be charged under federal laws against defrauding the U.S. or harboring immigrants who are in the U.S. unlawfully, according to the memo. If prosecutors opt not to bring criminal charges following such investigations, they would be required to alert Justice Department leadership.

Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta dismissed it as a “scare tactic” during a Wednesday interview on CNN.

“We are very well aware of what the law requires us to do and what it permits us to do,” he said. “We know that we don’t have to participate in immigration enforcement activities.”

Of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally or with temporary status in 2022, about 44% lived in states with sanctuary laws that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. That figure does not include those in sanctuary cities and counties in places without a statewide law, such as New Mexico.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration abruptly fired four of the department’s senior career immigration officials from the Executive Office of Immigration Review, the office that runs the immigration courts, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Those removed included the office’s former director Mary Cheng and Chief Immigration Judge Sheila McNulty, who was previously included by the conservative American Accountability Foundation on what it called a “Bureaucrat Watch List,” the sources said.

In Mexico, authorities have begun constructing giant tent shelters in the city of Ciudad Juarez to prepare for a possible influx of Mexicans deported.
DIVERSITY PROGRAMS SHUT DOWN

Trump has ordered all federal agencies to shut down their DEI programs, which are intended to promote opportunities for women, ethnic minorities, LGBT people and other traditionally underrepresented groups.

Civil rights advocates argue such programs are necessary to address longstanding inequities and structural racism.

Trump’s actions mark a significant blow to decades-long efforts to ensure equality in federal hiring and contracts, as well as many facets of American life, and could have a chilling effect on diversity efforts extending beyond the purview of the federal government.

On Tuesday night, Trump rescinded a 1965 order signed by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson that prohibited federal contractors from discriminating in employment and from employing affirmative action to ensure equal opportunity based on race, color, religion and national origin.

Donald Trump is seeking to dissuade private companies that receive government contracts from hiring employees from marginalized backgrounds – what the administration called “illegal DEI discrimination and preferences” – and asked government agencies to identify private companies that might be subject to civil investigation.

Johnson’s order was seen as a key moment of progress during the civil rights movement, coming at a time when Black Americans faced the threat of violence and “Jim Crow” laws that prohibited them from voting and from living in housing among their fellow citizens in the 1900s. Trump’s order will directly affect companies that fulfilled more than $759 billion in federal contracts in 2023, as well as private companies.