Mayors meet AG, say alien policy still hazy

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, flanked by counterparts Jorge Elorza (left) of Providence, R.I., and Steve Adler of Austin, Texas, speaks Tuesday outside the Justice Department in Washington after a meeting with Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, flanked by counterparts Jorge Elorza (left) of Providence, R.I., and Steve Adler of Austin, Texas, speaks Tuesday outside the Justice Department in Washington after a meeting with Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

WASHINGTON -- Mayors from several U.S. cities threatened with the loss of federal grants emerged from a meeting with the U.S. attorney general Tuesday saying they remain confused about how to prove their police aren't prohibited from cooperating with immigration authorities -- a requirement for the money.

At the same time, a federal judge in San Francisco blocked any attempt by President Donald Trump's administration to withhold funding from "sanctuary cities" that do not cooperate with U.S. immigration authorities, saying the president has no authority to attach new conditions to federal spending.

The Justice Department has warned some jurisdictions that they could lose some law enforcement grant money if they don't prove their police and sheriffs are able to share information with federal immigration authorities about the citizenship status of people in their custody. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has labeled cities that bar such information-sharing as "sanctuary cities."

"We want all jurisdictions to enthusiastically support the laws of the United States that require the removal of criminal aliens, as many jurisdictions already do," Sessions said in a statement released after the meeting with representatives of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

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But the officials who met with Sessions said practical questions remain about how to follow the rules.

For example, does that mean a sheriff's office must tell Immigration and Customs Enforcement about an inmate's incarceration by phone? Or will an inmate's fingerprint information, taken by the jail and then shared with the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, be enough? And how long can a jail hold someone for immigration authorities without violating their rights?

"We got more clarity than we've ever received, but we also have other thorny issues to sort through," said Jorge Elorza, the mayor of Providence, R.I., after the hourlong meeting. It was the first time the delegation of mayors met with Sessions since the department sent nine jurisdictions letters on Friday warning they would lose key grant money unless they document cooperation with immigration authorities.

The jurisdictions, which include California and major cities such as Chicago, New York and Philadelphia, were places the Justice Department's inspector general previously identified as having barriers to information-sharing among police and immigration officials. Some disputed they met the "sanctuary city" title.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, whose city received one of the letters, said he provided Sessions with proof of compliance during Tuesday's meeting but remained stunned the city received a warning in the first place, as it drafted its policies in consultation with federal immigration and Homeland Security Department officials.

The delegation also included mayors from Columbia, S.C.; Gary, Ind.; and Austin, Texas. The meeting touched on a number of other concerns related to the Trump administration's immigration policies they said remain confusing.

On a number of immigration issues, "we hear very different messages from [Homeland Security], [the Justice Department] and also the White House," Elorza said. "Just give us clarity and please have one, clear policy so we can know where we stand."

That policy remains murky, as U.S. District Judge William Orrick issued a preliminary injunction in two lawsuits -- one filed by San Francisco, the other by Santa Clara County, Calif. -- against an executive order targeting communities that protect aliens from deportation.

The injunction will stay in place while the lawsuits work their way through court.

The judge, an appointee of President Barack Obama, said Trump cannot set new conditions for the federal grants at stake. And even if he could, the conditions would have to be clearly related to the funds at issue and not coercive, Orrick said.

"Federal funding that bears no meaningful relationship to immigration enforcement cannot be threatened merely because a jurisdiction chooses an immigration enforcement strategy of which the president disapproves," the judge said.

A Justice Department attorney, Chad Readler, had defended the president's executive order as an attempt to use his "bully pulpit' to "encourage communities and states to comply with the law."

The Trump administration had further argued the lawsuits were premature because the government hasn't cut off any money yet or declared any communities to be sanctuary cities.

Information for this article was contributed by Alicia A. Caldwell and Sudhin Thanawala of The Associated Press.

A Section on 04/26/2017

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