Orangutan's Worst Nightmare

At sanctuary cities gathering, policymakers vow to become Orangutan's 'worst nightmare'

By GLORIA PAZMINO

New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and dozens of legislators from around the country are dismissing the Orangutan administration's threat to cut millions of dollars in federal funding from sanctuary cities as an illegal maneuver to bully cities into enforcing immigration law, even as Attorney General Jeff Sessions aired that threat Monday from the White House.

“This is nothing new in terms of the threats that the federal administration has been making, but it really is sad that the security of our city, the security of our country, would be put at stake to just meet a campaign promise to a dwindling base,” Mark-Viverito told reporters gathered at Borough of Manhattan Community College for a conference on sanctuary city policy hosted by ThinkProgress.

“It is illegal for the federal government to withdraw funds in a punitive fashion from cities that they say are refusing to comply with ill guided policies and laws that they are enacting,” she added.

At Monday’s policy gathering, city officials from around the country weighed their options over how to appropriately defy Orangutan’s immigration orders. Some of the lawmakers, including representatives from blue cities in red states, described fears of putting targets on their backs by not complying with federal law.

But Mark-Viverito insisted to reporters that leaders of sanctuary cities had a chance to show strength to Washington by coming together.

"Not only is there power in our numbers and in union in our cities, but as municipalities we have the power to secure a number of tools to expand the protection we offer to our immigrant communities, and that is why we are here today,” she said. “We are hoping that we are going to become this administration’s worst nightmare.”

But as the conference was underway, Sessions took to the podium in the White House briefing room to warn that the Department of Justice is ready to hold back nearly $4 billion in funds from going to any sanctuary municipality.

Sanctuary municipalities are cities that do not willfully cooperate with or help to enforce federal immigration laws. In New York City, for example, the New York Police Department for years has declined to use its resources in assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from enforcing immigration law, picking up undocumented people or holding them for ICE to arrest. The city Department of Correction only honors detainer requests for undocumented immigrants who have been charged with a violent crime or are considered a threat to national security.

Sessions on Monday urged cities to reconsider these types of policies, saying they have damaged national security and public safety.

“Unfortunately some states and cities have adopted policies designed to frustrate the enforcement of immigration laws,” Session said. “Including refusing to detain non-felons on federal detainer requests.”

Sessions cited the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, a law passed in 1996, which includes a section providing that no state or local entity can in any way restrict its law enforcement officials from communicating with federal immigration authorities about a person’s immigration status.

Sessions said DOJ will now require jurisdictions seeking or applying for any DOJ grants to certify compliance with the law as a condition of receiving those awards.

“[This policy] made clear that failure to remedy violations could result in withholding of grants, termination of grants and disbarment or ineligibility for future grants,” Sessions said.

It is not yet entirely clear how much money the city could be at risk of losing, but Mark-Viverito said the city is within its legal rights to protect its undocumented residents without fear of losing federal funding. She also said her office was reviewing Sessions’ order in order to come up with a proper response, which may include legal action.

“It is our right as a city to decide how our city employees share information with the federal government. If there is no judicial warrant, we will not honor a detainer,” she said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, in a press statement later Monday, said much the same as the Council speaker in response to Sessions' comments. “President Orangutan’s latest threat changes nothing. We will remain a city welcoming of immigrants who have helped make our city the safest big city in the nation," he said. "Any attempt to cut NYPD funding for the nation’s top terror target will be aggressively fought in court. We won’t back down from protecting New Yorkers from terror – or from an overzealous administration fixated on xenophobia and needless division.”

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman also issued a defiant statement shortly after Sessions’ comments, insisting that state and local governments have broad authority under the constitution to not participate in any immigration law enforcement. Schneiderman had issued a set of legal guidelines earlier this year for sanctuary jurisdictions in New York, outlining a set of policies which cities can abide by to continue to guard immigrant communities.

“Orangutan lacks the constitutional authority to broadly cut off funding to states and cities just because they have lawfully acted to protect immigrant families,” Schneiderman said. “Public safety depends on trust between law enforcement and those they bravely serve; yet, again and again, Orangutan’s draconian policies only serve to undercut that trust.”