When Congress put together their omnibus spending bill to continue to run the government until September, they didn't prioritize Trump's agenda to strip funding away from America's sanctuary cities.
Blasting News reported on those details, as well as that the Department of Justice's Attorney General Jeff Sessions' threat to sanctuary cities that they would pull funding if they didn't cooperate with federal authorities to turn over illegal immigrants with criminal convictions. The Trump administration was looking to include this in the spending bill which was rejected for a later time.
In the interim, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill Sunday to ban sanctuary cities in his state.
Gov. Abbott signed bill on Facebook Live
The signing of the new bill was streamed on Facebook Live which will crackdown on local governments and law enforcement that do not comply with "federal immigration laws" and requests to detain illegal immigrants. In January, one of President Trump's executive orders targeted sanctuary cities which enabled the Department of Homeland Security to review funding that goes to those jurisdictions.
But in April, federal Judge William H. Orrick blocked the administration siding with those jurisdictions which stated that it was unconstitutional. While it's been said that the constitutionality of the order isn't legitimate, that sanctuary cities would be devastated by having their funding stripped is, and it is said that it was the reason Orrick blocked the order.
Penalties for cities that don't comply
But Sessions' response to the block was that this was "the Trump era," and that the DOJ would fight the litigation and that the sanctuary city crackdown was "squarely within the powers of the President."The White House had also responded by attacking the judge in official statements and on Twitter as well as attacking the 9th Circuit Court which Trump is reportedly considering dismantling.
Further, Gov. Abbott's new law will fine those cities $25,500 each day that they refuse to follow the law and a Class A Misdemeanor charge for law enforcement officials as well as the removal of elected and appointed officials from office. In a press release, Abbot said that public safety was his priority and that the release of individuals from jail who were illegal and had been charged with heinous crimes was inexcusable.
Petty vs. heinous crimes
The Governor seemed specific in his statement about the kinds of crimes the individuals they would be targeting are charged with in order to make his case that those sanctuary cities should not release them. Even the Trump administration has been as specific during the 2016 campaign when they were forced to give details, such as narrowing their argument for deportation of illegal immigrants with major criminal offenses versus those with minor ones like getting a traffic ticket.
But since taking office, the administration has been persistent in having the Department of Homeland Security attempt to make an example of those without criminal offenses, such as was reported in an article by Blasting News about their crackdown on a Long Island Bakery. Much like that effort, Gov. Abbott's ban is another effort by a Republican Trump advocate who is doing his part to impose a draconian crackdown on behalf of the Trump administration.
