White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday that Donald Trump aims to punish "sanctuary cities" by cutting off federal funding to them. First off, trying to force cities like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and others into compliance is likely illegal. Alan Gomez writes:
Theresa Cardinal Brown, director of immigration policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said that kind of lawsuit fits Trump's "big and showy style," but the law is murky. [...] "Justice could spend all of its time and resources going after these cases," Brown said.
Second, the best Trump can likely do through executive action is choke off funding from the Justice and Homeland Security Departments, which means undermining law enforcement agencies.
The two most likely federal agencies that could cut off funding are Justice and Homeland Security. They provide grants for local law enforcement agencies to hire officers; bolster prosecutions, courts and jails; provide drug treatment, prepare for terrorist attacks, and assist crime victims and witnesses.
To do more, he'll need the help of Congress. So yeah, in order to boost law enforcement, he’s gonna cut off money to law enforcement. Feel safe yet?
Finally, what most of these cities get from the feds is a pittance.
And then there’s this…