Democratic Mayors are boycotting a scheduled meeting at the White House after the Trump administration launched a racist attack on 23 sanctuary cities and two states.
Here is the DOJ statement announcing the threat to some of America’s biggest cities:
The Department of Justice today sent the attached letters to 23 jurisdictions, demanding the production of documents that could show whether each jurisdiction is unlawfully restricting information sharing by its law enforcement officers with federal immigration authorities.
All 23 of these jurisdictions were previously contacted by the Justice Department, when the Department raised concerns about laws, policies, or practices that may violate 8 U.S.C. 1373, a federal statute that promotes information sharing related to immigration enforcement and with which compliance is a condition of FY2016 and FY2017 Byrne JAG awards.
The letters also state that recipient jurisdictions that fail to respond, fail to respond completely, or fail to respond in a timely manner will be subject to a Department of Justice subpoena.
Here is the list of cities and states that received the letter:
Chicago, Illinois;
Cook County, Illinois;
New York City, New York;
State of California;
Albany, New York;
Berkeley, California;
Bernalillo County, New Mexico;
Burlington, Vermont;
City and County of Denver, Colorado;
Fremont, California;
Jackson, Mississippi;
King County, Washington;
Lawrence, Massachusetts;
City of Los Angeles, California;
Louisville Metro, Kentucky;
Monterey County, California;
Sacramento County, California;
City and County of San Francisco, California;
Sonoma County, California;
Watsonville, California;
West Palm Beach, Florida;
State of Illinois; and
State of Oregon.
Democratic mayors announced that they are boycotting a scheduled meeting at the White House:
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu is boycotting a White House meeting today, blasting the Trump admin's threat to sanctuary cities. Other Democratic mayors say they're skipping as well.
— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) January 24, 2018
Landrieu says the White House invited mayors under "false pretenses" to talk transpo.
"An attack on one of our cities’ mayors who is following the Constitution is an attack on all of us. I will not be attending that meeting," he said. https://t.co/q8PYWjyUiG
— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) January 24, 2018
New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio announced that he won’t be attending a scheduled meeting at the White House:
I will NOT be attending today’s meeting at the White House after @realDonaldTrump’s Department of Justice decided to renew their racist assault on our immigrant communities. It doesn’t make us safer and it violates America’s core values.
— Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) January 24, 2018
The Trump DOJ’s attack on the cities is about this White House’s desire to deport more non-white immigrants. It is in no way surprising that the administration would try to lure the mayors to a meeting under false pretenses.
The Democratic mayors aren’t going to be used as props in the White House anti-immigrant propaganda. Since Trump only wants to govern for his base, it is fitting that the White House will only get to address a room with Republican mayors in it.
Trump doesn’t want to lead America, so Democratic mayors are going to pretend like he speaks for them.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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