Attorney General, Jeff Sessions said yesterday that US cities refusing to increase efforts to focus on the crimes committed by undocumented immigrants would be barred from involvement in a new training program on crime reduction, which the Justice Department unveiled earlier in 2017.
During the announcement, four local police departments that have expressed their interest in becoming part of the new Public Safety Partnership Program were singled out by Sessions. He said that they would first have to provide answers to a series of questions before 18 August, confirming they do not have policies to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation, and that federal immigration officials will be given access to local jails.
Sessions said that states and cities holding ‘sanctuary’ policies result in everyone being less safe. The four police departments cited in the speech were Stockton and San Bernardino in California, Baltimore in Maryland, and Albuquerque in New Mexico. Kevin Davis, the Police Commissioner of Baltimore, said Baltimore does not enforce federal immigration laws and that the program had no formal selection process when the cities concerned were first chosen – adding that the local jail is not controlled by them.
The San Bernardino police chief, Jarrod Burguan, said his department was interested in a similar program run by the Obama administration and remains so. He added that there are no sanctuary policies in San Bernardino. There was no immediate response from the remaining police departments.