By Justin Sing
Bloomberg
President Donald Trump said on Thursday he’s considering pulling federal immigration enforcement agents out of California, which declared itself a so-called sanctuary state and limits local police cooperation with U.S. authorities enforcing the president’s immigration policies.
“Frankly, it’s a disgrace, this sanctuary city situation,” Trump said at the White House. If the administration were to remove Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials from California, the state would be “begging” for them to come back, he said. “I’m thinking about doing it.”
The Trump administration and Republican lawmakers have been stepping up their fight against cities and states that limit their cooperation with federal authorities on immigration. The Justice Department last month demanded that almost two dozen cities, counties and states — from New York City to California — prove that they’re sharing information about people in the country illegally or risk subpoenas and cuts in public-safety grants.
California became a sanctuary state last October, along with several of its cities and counties. Under laws signed by Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, federal immigration officials must produce a warrant to gain access to California work sites, and bars employers from sharing confidential employee information such as Social Security numbers without a subpoena. State and local law enforcement officials can’t use their resources to aid in federal immigration enforcement.
The Trump administration says it’s a matter of maintaining public safety. Trump campaigned for the White House denouncing “weak and foolish policies” that he said let criminals into the country and then failed to deport them. Among cases he publicized was the death of Kathryn Steinle, who was shot in San Francisco in 2015 by an undocumented immigrant who had previously been deported multiple times.
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