Six States, NYC Sue DOJ Over Sanctuary City Funding Threat

More than 350 children separated from the families under Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy were placed in New York City as of June 20, but a lawsuit filed by the city on Wednesday involves a separate issue of communications with federal authorities and the federal government.

As a sanctuary city, New York limits the cooperation that they provide federal immigration authorities.

The Department of Justice has not released $4 million for the city’s Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, which supports 911 emergency responders, diversion programs for nonviolent felony drug offenders, and anti-cybercrime and identity theft efforts

Without issuing a final determination on New York’s application, the Justice Department announced last month that it would distribute nearly $200 million to jurisdictions committed to "keeping criminal aliens off our streets and our law-abiding citizens safe."

In a 30-page lawsuit, New York Corporation Counsel Zachary Carter noted that Sessions’ statements on the city’s crime record does not fit the facts.

“Although the Attorney General has asserted that New York City is ‘crumbling under the weight of illegal immigration and violent crime’ due to its ‘soft on crime stance,’ the city's historic streak of declining crime paints a very different picture,” the complaint states. “Crime in the city is at the lowest level since the city started keeping reliable records in the 1950s, with decreases in every major felony category. The city's track record contradicts the Attorney General's repeated-and factually unsupported-claim that ‘the lawless practices of so-called 'sanctuary' jurisdictions ... make our country less safe.’”

Last month in nearby Philadelphia, a federal judge found the Justice Department’s defunding sanctuary cities illegal in a ruling that splashed cold water on Sessions’ crime claims about the City of Brotherly Love.

“The major source of crime in Philadelphia are people who were born and raised here,” U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson wrote.

New York City argues that the opposite of Sessions’ claim is true: Cities that protect undocumented immigrants are safer.

“In cities where immigrant communities believe that local authorities operate in concert with federal immigration enforcement, residents have retreated into the shadows, to the detriment of their own safety and that of the public,” the lawsuit states. “Crime reporting in many immigrant communities dropped precipitously in the wake of the current administration's sweeping executive order instructing law enforcement agencies to target more immigrants for deportation, encouraging state and local government participation in federal immigration enforcement, and unilaterally withdrawing all federal funding from whatever jurisdictions the Attorney General deemed 'sanctuary jurisdictions.’”

This trend has not played out in New York City.

“By contrast, New York City has seen no decline in crime reporting associated with ZIP codes with the highest foreign-born and non-citizen populations,” the complaint states. “This encouraging trend extends to crimes like harassment and rape, where a greater chilling effect would be expected if residents were afraid to contact the police because of immigration concerns. Crimes continue to be reported-and, therefore, dangerous criminals continue to be arrested and prosecuted.”

Justice Department spokesman Devin O'Malley insisted that the policy was about public safety.

“By choosing not to comply with a federal statute that promotes cooperation between local jurisdictions and federal immigration authorities, political leaders deliberately choose to protect criminal aliens in their custody and to make their communities less safe," O'Malley said in a statement. "Today’s lawsuit is a disservice to these states’ law-abiding citizens, but the Department of Justice will continue to fight for the rule of law, to protect public safety, and to keep criminal aliens off the streets.”

In June, O'Malley attacked Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney by name in a press release accusing him of gleefully protecting violent criminals, despite a federal judge's finding rejecting the Justice Department's scaremongering. Every study on the subject has found that immigrants commit less crime than native-born citizens.

New York City hopes that a Manhattan-based federal judge will find that the Justice Department’s policy is “unlawful, unconstitutional, and arbitrary and capricious,” echoing similar rulings in Philadelphia and Santa Clara.

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