Sanctuary cities and states are violating federal law and the constitution by trying to hide migrants from federal enforcement, Attorney General William Barr told sheriffs in Washington D.C.
“Let us state the reality upfront and as clearly as possible,” he told the National Sheriffs’ Association meeting in D.C. on February 10:
When we are talking about sanctuary cities, we are talking about policies that are designed to allow criminal aliens to escape. These policies are not about people who came to our country illegally but have otherwise been peaceful and productive members of society. Their express purpose is to shelter aliens whom local law enforcement has already arrested for other crimes. This is neither lawful nor sensible.
It is not lawful because the Constitution vests the federal government with the sole authority to make and enforce immigration law.
Sanctuary states are also directing that foreign migrants be given shorter jail sentences than Americans so the migrants do not get deported, Barr warned:
… we are meticulously reviewing the actions of certain district attorneys who have adopted policies of charging foreign nationals with lesser offenses for the express purpose of avoiding the federal immigration consequences of those nationals’ criminal conduct. In pursuing their personal ambitions and misguided notions of equal justice, these district attorneys are systematically violating the rule of law and may even be unlawfully discriminating against American citizens. ….
