On Wednesday, the Justice Department sent a warning to 23 cities that subpoenas would be issued if they fail to produce information showing whether they are complying with federal immigration law enforcement officials.<\/p>\n
The leaders of those jurisdictions, all of whom were previously contacted, were instructed to hand over documents that show whether they are \u201cunlawfully restricting information sharing by law enforcement officers with federal immigration authorities\u201d<\/a> and pursuing sanctuary policies,<\/p>\n \u201cProtecting criminal aliens from federal immigration authorities defies common sense and undermines the rule of law,\u201d said Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement to 23 jurisdictions, including New York, Portland (Oregon), Chicago and San Francisco,<\/p>\n A number of Democratic mayors who were in Washington, D.C., for a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors opted to boycott an event at the White House, favoring a press conference to assert they were being threatened with imprisonment.<\/p>\n New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who serves as the president of the\u00a0conference, attributed the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cdecision to threaten mayors and demonize immigrants yet again\u201d as the reason he refused to attend the afternoon working session.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the President is prepared to engage in an honest conversation about the future of our shared constituencies, we will be honored to join him. Until that time, mayors of both parties will work together to keep our cities safe, hold this administration accountable to its promises, and protect immigrant communities \u2013 with or without Washington\u2019s help,\u201d said Landrieu in a statement.<\/a><\/p>\n Standing beside Landrieu was Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who called his city a \u201cTrump-free zone\u201d and the mayor of Portland, Oregon, Ted Wheeler, termed the administration\u2019s move as \u201cone of the most disappointing actions from a White House in my lifetime\u201d and claimed President Trump \u201chas no moral compass.\u201d<\/p>\n Emanuel maintained the letter from Justice was released today so as to distract attention from the administration\u2019s alleged lack of a transportation and infrastructure plan.<\/p>\n The Justice Department, however, argued that the mayors were required to abide by federal law if they receive federal financial assistance.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve given them federal dollars \u2013 your taxpayer dollars \u2013 to cooperate with federal law enforcement,\u201d Sarah Isgur Flores, a spokeswoman for the DOJ, said Wednesday on Fox News<\/em>. \u201cSo what we\u2019re saying is if we find out you\u2019re not complying with federal law, we\u2019re taking the tax dollars back.\u201d<\/p>\n The jurisdictions were: Chicago; Cook County, Ill; New York City; the state of California; Albany, N.Y.; Berkeley, Calif.; Bernalillo County, N.M.; Burlington, Vt.; the city and county of Denver, Colo.; \u00a0Fremont, Calif.; Jackson, Miss.; King County, Wash.; Lawrence, Mass.;\u00a0City of Los Angeles, Calif.; Louisville, Ky.; Monterey County, Calif.; Sacramento County, Calif.; the\u00a0city and county of San Francisco; Sonoma County, Calif.; Watsonville, Calif.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; the state of Illinois and the state of Oregon.<\/p>\n