The Trump administration instructed federal prosecutors to investigate and potentially prosecute local officials who don’t cooperate with deportation efforts. In response, the local officials in question made clear they’ll follow the law — but that’s it.
“You’re not going to see any elected officials that want to support criminals,” Chicago alderman Gilbert Villegas told NOTUS on Wednesday. “But you’re not going to intimidate me by threatening me with arrest.”
A new memo from acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, first reported by The Washington Post and independently obtained by NOTUS, instructs U.S. attorneys’ offices across the country to investigate and possibly charge local officials who have been “resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands.”
Local and state police are not required to work with federal immigration enforcement, and in some cities and states are barred from doing so by local or state policies generally known as “sanctuary” laws. As the Trump administration seeks to utilize local law enforcement in its deportation efforts, many of these cities have made clear they don’t intend to back down.
Trending
Chicago has become a target for Trump, particularly since Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois and Mayor Brandon Johnson made clear they don’t support Trump’s deportation agenda.
“The president has continued to use Illinois and Chicago, specifically, as a punching bag around public safety, immigration,” Villegas said. “It’s not our job to also seek people that ICE is looking for.”
In general, mayors and governors have acknowledged that they can’t interfere with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But they’ve also made clear that when it comes to local and state police, local law reigns. During Trump’s last term, his administration lost the legal battle to overturn California’s sanctuary law, as well as the effort to withhold federal funds from places with such laws.
“Denver does not obstruct federal law enforcement and we will cooperate with ICE on violent criminals, as we always have,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said in a statement. “However, our values and laws are clear. Local police do not do the work of immigration enforcement and we will not be bullied into doing ICE’s job for them.”
In Congress, representatives of potentially embattled cities agreed.
“There are federal laws that folks are going to follow, but state law and local city law also takes precedent in their state,” California Rep. Robert Garcia said. “I think people in California are going to stand strong, led by our governor and our attorney general, to do the right thing and protect our laws.”
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t fear. Multiple local Democrats reference the Trump administration’s habit of pushing even legally dubious policies, like his attempt to revoke birthright citizenship.
One mayor of a small city in California spoke to NOTUS on the condition of anonymity because of fear of attracting the Trump administration’s attention. The mayor said the vagueness around what could be potentially considered “obstruction” or “not cooperating” was concerning.
“There’s a difference between obstructing and cooperating,” the mayor said, worried the city could “be put in a difficult position of having to violate state law or potentially be prosecuted.”
The mayor said the city’s limits on working with ICE had rebuilt trust between the government and the Latino population. “We made a tremendous amount of progress, and I really worry that this is going to backslide,” the mayor said.
Illinois Rep. Delia Ramirez said Trump’s threat may work on some city officials.
“I think that a lot of people are going to cave to this threat. I understand that fear is real,” she told NOTUS. “We have a president of retaliation, retribution, and it doesn’t matter who you are, but especially if you’re defending immigrants.”
But she felt Illinois was well positioned to resist.
“We are not going to do ICE’s work,” she said. “I want to make sure that constituents know their rights.”
Some Republicans downplayed the prosecution threat. Thaddeus Cleveland, sheriff for Terrell County, Texas, said the laws that allow people to be prosecuted for interfering with ICE are narrow, and only those who take deliberate steps to get in the way of investigations could be prosecuted.
Cleveland said he wasn’t concerned about the directive impacting local police or officials negatively. It shows that the Trump admin is “serious about it, that if anybody tries to interfere, that they certainly will take that sort of action,” he said.
—
Casey Murray is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. NOTUS reporter Reese Gorman contributed reporting.
Author
