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Federal Ruling on Sanctuary Cities a Victory for Criminal Justice
[The Hill via Townhall] A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that the Department of Justice (DOJ) could withhold funding from cities and states that refuse to cooperate with the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants.A three-judge panel on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overturned a district court judge's ruling that the department lacked the authority to impose immigration-related conditions on certain funding. The panel’s opinion, written by Judge Reena Raggi, found that Congress had delegated authority to the attorney general to set conditions on the federal grant program it had created, called the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program. "Repeatedly and throughout its pronouncement of Byrne Program statutory requirements, Congress makes clear that a grant applicant demonstrates qualification by satisfying statutory requirements in such form and according to such rules as the Attorney General establishes," wrote Raggi, who was appointed to the court by George W. Bush. "This confers considerable authority on the Attorney General." A group of seven states and New York City sued the DOJ in 2017 after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the agency would start withholding funding from local governments that refused to share information about undocumented immigrants or provide jail access to federal authorities investigating inmates' immigration status. The states challenging the policy are New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Washington, Massachusetts and Virginia. Posted by: Besoeker 2020-02-27 |
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