A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies reveals that the U.S. Department of Justice is continuing to support financially jurisdictions around the country that have declared themselves unwilling to cooperate in the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
The report, authored by Jessica M. Vaughan and Nathan Desautels and published today, says that in 2021 the DOJ gave approximately $300 million to 11 sanctuary state agencies and 86 localities, including Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. The funds came through three separate DOJ programs: the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), the Byrne Justice Assistance Grants (JAG), and the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program. The sanctuary policies followed by the recipients not only impeded the enforcement of federal laws, in many cases they were themselves in violation of the law. What’s more the policies supported by the DOJ’s funding affect the safety of American citizens. The authors note:
Considering that nearly all of the federal immigration enforcement within the country is directed at removing aliens who have committed crimes, and who are quite likely to re-offend if allowed to remain in the community, the sanctuary policies undeniably are undermining public safety and undercutting the effectiveness of the DOJ programs from which they receive funding. According to one government report, about 25 percent of criminal alien offenders who were released by sanctuary jurisdictions were subsequently arrested again within eight months of release.
The report notes that sanctuary policies attract illegal migration and provide a safe haven for criminal aliens in crime. They cite a San Francisco Chronicle story (described here earlier this week) detailing how illegal drug traffickers in SF benefit from the city’s sanctuary policies.
In many ways, DOJ’s practices in the Biden administration are acting in a manner directly opposite the department’s legal mission. Now, instead of requiring cities to demonstrate compliance with the federal law, Justice requires to certify their agreement with the administration’s policy preferences, which include “policies and/or procedures that incorporate best practices on officer hiring, recruitment, and retention to include diversity, equity, and inclusion”, as well as showing the required racial, ethnic, gender, and LGBTQIA bias.
In this way as in many, many others, the current regime has abandoned the rule of law for the rule of ideology. That’s America in the 21st century.
For more, see CIS.org.