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Sessions To Chicago: Stop Protecting Immigrants Or Lose $2.3 Million Grant

By Heather Cherone | April 21, 2017 4:56pm | Updated on April 24, 2017 9:26am
 Asserting that Chicago is
Asserting that Chicago is "crumbling under the weight of illegal immigration and violent crime," the Trump administration warned Chicago Friday that it would lose $2.3 million used to fight crime — unless it stopped protecting undocumented immigrants.
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PBS Newshour

CITY HALL — Asserting that Chicago is "crumbling under the weight of illegal immigration and violent crime," the Trump administration warned Chicago Friday that it would lose $2.3 million used to fight crime — unless it stopped protecting undocumented immigrants.

Chicago and Cook County — along with seven other municipalities — have until June 30 to assure Attorney General Jeff Sessions that they are helping federal immigration officials deport those without permission to be in America.

However, Mayor Rahm Emanuel vowed to fight the Trump administration in court along with nearly three dozen other cities — and said Chicago will remain a "sanctuary city."

"We've seen the letter from DOJ," Emanuel said in a statement. "Neither the facts nor the law are on their side. Regardless, let me be clear: Chicago's values and Chicago's future are not for sale."

The letters warned that Chicago and Cook County could lose access to the Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, which is the leading source of federal funding for state and local law enforcement agencies.

In 2016, Chicago got $2.3 million through the grant, which was expanded by the Obama Administration to allow cities to purchase body cameras after a series of fatal encounters between police officers and unarmed civilians. The city got about the same amount from the grant in 2015, city records show.

City officials had expected to get $3.2 million in 2017 from the grant named fof New York Police Officer Edward Byrne, who was slain on duty in 1988, said Molly Poppe, a spokeswoman for Emanuel.

In addition, the city had been counting on $7.5 million in law enforcement grants from the Department of Justice, Poppe said. The city also has $4-5 million left over from previous years' grants that has yet to be spent, she added.

In November, Emanuel said he didn't think Trump would make good on his campaign promise to threaten sanctuary cities like Chicago.

In February, President Donald Trump blamed rising violence in Chicago on "undocumented immigrants," but gave no evidence to support his claim.

In a statement released Friday, the Department of Justice said undocumented immigrants caused the city's murder rate to "skyrocket" by 50 percent since 2015.

A 2015 study by the American Immigration Council found that immigrants were less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.

Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson has said the Police Department — which is prohibited from tracking immigration status by the department's rules as well as Chicago's Sanctuary City ordinance — has no data to support the claims made by the Trump administration.

Chicago's status as a sanctuary city dates to 1985, when Mayor Harold Washington prohibited city agencies from asking people about their immigration status, though the Chicago Police Department runs background checks on criminal suspects.