Buried in President Trump’s budget proposal released Thursday was an opening salvo against so-called sanctuary cities, local jurisdictions he promised to punish for refusing to cooperate with deportation officers.
Trump wants to slash $210 million in federal reimbursements to state and local jails that hold immigrants convicted of crimes while in the country illegally. The Trump administration called the program “poorly targeted,” adding that two-thirds of the money goes to only a handful of states, including California and Illinois, “for the cost of incarcerating certain illegal criminal aliens.”
The money, awarded by the Department of Justice, can make up a sizable portion of budgets for state and local police and sheriff’s departments. Trump, who promised weeks before he was elected to “cancel all federal funding to sanctuary cities,” appears to be using it as a cudgel to force those local governments to comply with his administration’s efforts to deport people who are in the U.S. illegally.
(via: LA Times)
