President Donald Trump signed three government orders addressing immigration enforcement Monday evening, together with concentrating on officers who uphold sanctuary metropolis legal guidelines and boosting entry to the navy for state and native regulation enforcement.
Observers mentioned it’s the newest in a sequence of actions demonstrating how the administration “has it in for” sanctuary cities like Chicago.
One of many orders signed by Trump orders state and federal officers to publish lists of jurisdictions sometimes called sanctuary cities that restrict cooperation with federal officers’ efforts to arrest immigrants within the nation illegally.
A second order signed by Trump requires rising entry to extra navy for state and native regulation enforcement. It additionally requires bolstering authorized help for officers accused of wrongdoing whereas finishing up their official duties.
Trump additionally directed the workplace of Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi to arrange a system that would supply authorized assist and monetary safety to regulation enforcement officers “who unjustly incur bills and liabilities for actions taken throughout the efficiency of their official duties to implement the regulation.”
A 3rd order reinforces an current federal regulation requiring English-language proficiency as a requirement for industrial motor drivers.
The manager orders are the newest effort to crack down on immigration and goal sanctuary cities — and Chicago — by the Trump administration.
“This administration already has it in for us,” mentioned Fred Tsao, senior coverage counsel on the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
The manager order to make a listing of all of the sanctuary cities that don’t adjust to federal immigration legal guidelines doesn’t do something new, Tsao mentioned.
“As far as placing a listing collectively, we all know that the state of Illinois, Prepare dinner County and the town of Chicago are already on that record. How do we all know that? As a result of the Justice Division is already suing us over our welcoming insurance policies,” he mentioned.
This isn’t the primary time the Trump administration has gone after Chicago for its sanctuary insurance policies, he added.
“The primary Trump administration additionally went after the town of Chicago by attempting to remove federal police grant funding that was issued via the Justice Division,” he mentioned. “The town of Chicago sued, and the town of Chicago received.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson wasn’t instantly accessible for remark about Trump’s newest orders. Earlier this month, the mayor took his working feud with the president to a different degree when he characterised Trump’s threats to withhold billions in federal funding from sanctuary cities as “terrorism.”
“Attempting to drive your will to interrupt the spirit of working folks to be able to have a dialog — that’s terrorism. And we’re not going to barter with terrorists,” Johnson mentioned then.
Trump’s government orders are the newest in a sequence of photographs taken on the metropolis that has lengthy been one among his favourite political punching baggage.
Earlier than Trump’s inauguration, border czar Tom Homan warned Johnson to “come to the desk or get out of the best way” of mass deportations the place Chicago might be “floor zero.”
In March, Johnson, together with mayors of different sanctuary cities — Michelle Wu of Boston, Mike Johnston of Denver and Eric Adams of New York — have been grilled by conservative lawmakers in a high-stakes congressional listening to.
Chicago has been a sanctuary metropolis since March 1985, through an government order from Mayor Harold Washington that has since been handed as an ordinance.
The town’s sanctuary metropolis standing doesn’t block federal brokers from lawfully finishing up their jobs. The ordinance requires the town to not cooperate with immigration officers.
Contributing: Dorothy Hernandez, AP
