Attorney General William Barr announced a new host of sweeping and strict sanctions and legal actions that will be taken by the Department of Justice against sanctuary cities and states that shelter illegal aliens, as Fox News reports.
In a speech at a conference of the National Sheriff’s Association in Washington, D.C., Barr declared that the DOJ would sue several sanctuary counties and states, describing such policies as being “designed to allow criminal aliens to escape…Their express purpose is to shelter aliens whom local law enforcement has already arrested for other crimes.”
Lawsuits have already been filed by the DOJ against the states of New Jersey and California, as well as King County in Washington state. These are in addition to the previous disciplinary actions taken against the state of New York by the Department of Homeland Security last week, which banned New York citizens from applying for “trusted traveler programs” due to the state’s sanctuary law.
Barr declared that “today is a significant escalation in the federal government’s efforts to confront the resistance of ‘sanctuary cities’…We will consider taking action against any jurisdiction that, or any politician who, unlawfully obstructs the federal enforcement of immigration law.”