Last week, a federal judge in California dealt a temporary death blow to the Trump administration’s goal of depriving sanctuary cities of their federal grant money. In a decision that is as biased as it is baffling, Judge William Orrick ruled in favor of San Francisco and Santa Clara, granting them an injunction against the Justice Department while their respective lawsuits move forward. Orrick determined that President Trump was not allowed to set new conditions on money already approved by Congress, even though these grants are distributed by the executive branch. And, of course, even though these cities are in clear violation of U.S. federal law.
While it’s extremely important for the federal government to respect the rights of states and municipalities, there are two problems with that point of view when it comes to sanctuary cities.
One, they are in gross violation of federal law – and we’re not talking about the baseline law that prohibits illegal immigration. We’re talking about the federal statues that make it a felony to harbor and provide sanctuary for illegal immigrants. These cities are not just saying that they refuse to send their police out to act as federal agents – that would be a permissible act of “states’ rightshood.” Nor are they simply indicating that they will give low priority to the capture and detention of illegal immigrants, as that too would be a permissible plan under the doctrine of prosecutorial discretion. No, these cities are passing laws that PROHIBIT their local officials from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement authorities.
And that brings us to the second point, which is the penalty: Nothing more or less than losing a federal grant that makes up a fraction of a percent of their overall funding! And this judge thinks the Trump administration does not have that authority? C’mon.
This is not the legalization of marijuana we’re talking about here. We’re talking about an issue – illegal immigration – which is a clear and present threat to our national security. By aiding and abetting these migrants, cities like San Francisco and Santa Clara are luring immigrants across the border with a thick, juicy carrot. Come on across, you’ll be perfectly safe as long as you come live in our sanctuary! How is that fair to the residents of neighboring towns? How is that fair to the people who may be killed by these migrants or their traffickers as they make their way into the country? How is that fair to the hundreds of millions of Americans who do not want to see drugs and terrorists come across that border?
These courts are not only off the map when it comes to the law, they are wildly out of line when it comes to their responsibility to the safety and security of our nation. We pray that this issue is resolved correctly when it comes before the Supreme Court, but at some point, we’re going to need to do something about the insane liberal nonsense being spouted from our federal court system. It’s gotten completely out of hand.
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