Monday, March 27, 2017
Good afternoon. The
Department of Justice has a duty to enforce our nation’s laws, including our
immigration laws. Those laws require us
to promptly remove aliens when they are convicted of certain crimes.
The vast majority of the American people support this
common-sense requirement. According to
one recent poll, 80 percent of Americans believe that cities that arrest
illegal immigrants for crimes should be required to turn them over to
immigration authorities.
Unfortunately, some states and cities have adopted policies
designed to frustrate the enforcement of our immigration laws. This includes refusing to detain known felons
under federal detainer requests, or otherwise failing to comply with these
laws. For example, the Department of
Homeland Security recently issued a report showing that in a single week, there
were more than 200 instances of jurisdictions refusing to honor Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer requests with respect to individuals charged
or convicted of a serious crime. The
charges and convictions against these aliens include drug trafficking, hit and
run, rape, sex offenses against a child and even murder.
Such policies cannot continue. They make our nation less safe by putting
dangerous criminals back on our streets.
We all remember the tragic case of Kate Steinle, the
32-year-old woman who was shot and killed two years ago in San Francisco as she
walked along a pier with her father. The
shooter, Francisco Sanchez, was an illegal immigrant who had already been
deported five times and had seven felony convictions.
Just eleven weeks before the shooting, San Francisco had
released Sanchez from its custody, even though ICE had filed a detainer
requesting that he be kept in custody until immigration authorities could pick
him up for removal. Even worse, Sanchez
admitted that the only reason he came to San Francisco was because of its
sanctuary policies.
A similar story unfolded just last week, when Ever Valles,
an illegal immigrant and Mexican national, was charged with murder and robbery
of a man at a light rail station. Valles
was released from a Denver jail in late December, despite the fact that ICE had
lodged a detainer for his removal.
The American people are justifiably angry. They know that when cities and states refuse
to help enforce immigration laws, our nation is less safe. Failure to deport aliens who are convicted
for criminal offenses puts whole communities at risk – especially immigrant communities
in the very sanctuary jurisdictions that seek to protect the perpetrators.
DUIs, assaults, burglaries, drug crimes, gang crimes, rapes,
crimes against children and murders.
Countless Americans would be alive today – and countless loved ones
would not be grieving today – if the policies of these sanctuary jurisdictions
were ended.
Not only do these policies endanger the lives of every
American; just last May, the Department of Justice Inspector General found that
these policies also violate federal law.
The President has rightly said that this disregard for the
law must end. In his executive order, he
stated that it is the policy of the executive branch to ensure that states and
cities comply with all federal laws, including our immigration laws.
The order also states that “the Attorney General and the
Secretary [of Homeland Security] . . . shall ensure that jurisdictions that
willfully refuse to comply” with the law “are not eligible to receive Federal
grants, except as deemed necessary for law enforcement purposes by the Attorney
General or the Secretary.”
Today I am urging all states and local jurisdictions to
comply with all federal laws, including 8 U.S.C. Section 1373. Moreover, the Department of Justice will
require jurisdictions seeking or applying for Department grants to certify
compliance with Section 1373 as a condition for receiving these awards.
This policy is entirely consistent with the Department of
Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) guidance issued last July under the
previous administration. This guidance
requires state and local jurisdictions to comply and certify compliance with Section
1373 in order to be eligible for OJP grants.
It also made clear that failure to remedy violations could result in
withholding of grants, termination of grants, and disbarment or ineligibility
for future grants.
The Department of Justice will also take all lawful steps to
claw-back any funds awarded to a jurisdiction that willfully violates Section
1373.
In the current fiscal year, department’s OJP and Community
Oriented Policing Services anticipate awarding more than $4.1 billion dollars
in grants.
I urge our nation’s states and cities to consider carefully
the harm they are doing to their citizens by refusing to enforce our
immigration laws, and to re-think these policies. Such policies make their cities and states
less safe, and put them at risk of losing valuable federal dollars.
The American people want and deserve a lawful immigration
system that keeps us safe and serves our national interest. This expectation is reasonable, and our
government has a duty to meet it. And we will meet it.
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