Thread: GOP: Justice Dept. forced New Orleans to become sanctuary city

By JOEL GEHRKE • 5/19/16 1:55 PM

Justice Department officials forced the city of New Orleans to adopt sanctuary city policies that prevent local law enforcement from helping federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, according to a pair of top Republicans.

"It is outrageous that DOJ would seek a consent decree to actually inhibit the ability of the federal government to enforce federal law," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, who chairs the Judiciary subcommittee in immigration, wrote Thursday to Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

The Justice Department brought about the new policy through a two-step process, according to the lawmakers. The first step was the threat of a civil rights lawsuit against the New Orleans Policy Department, in 2011, which led to a consent decree in 2012. Justice then helped New Orleans develop new policies to implement that order, which came out in February of 2016.

The new policies bar New Orleans police from helping ICE in any "immigration enforcement operations," the lawmakers noted. They demanded that Lynch turn over "any and all communications" pertaining to New Orleans Police Department procedures, the civil rights suit, and the new implementation of the new policies.

"By hindering the ability of ICE to apprehend criminal aliens, DOJ consciously disregards the safety and security of the American public by enabling the release of these criminals back into our communities to commit more crimes," Goodlatte and Gowdy wrote. "It also places ICE agents and officers at greater risk when they are forced to arrest these criminal aliens who are no longer in a secure jail facility, but in public places where they can more readily escape or access a weapon."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/go...rticle/2591786

By Richard Rainey, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on May 19, 2016 at 3:31 PM

The battle in Baton Rouge over New Orleans' status as a "sanctuary city" for immigrants has spilled into the halls of Congress.

In a letter Wednesday (May 18 ) to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, two U.S. House members from Virginia and South Carolina questioned whether the Department of Justice was standing in its own way by agreeing to the New Orleans Police Department's policy of not cooperating with federal immigration officials in certain cases.

That and related immigration policies were written into a sweeping settlement — known as a consent decree — between New Orleans and the Justice Department meant to improve NOPD operations to meet constitutional standards.

"It is outrageous that DOJ would seek a consent decree that would inhibit the ability of the federal government to enforce federal law," wrote Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary, and Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the subcommittee on immigration and border security.

Their letter adds to an ongoing donnybrook over sanctuary cities being waged in the Louisiana Legislature. Rep. Valerie Hodges, R-Denham Springs, has proposed a bill to withhold state construction money to any municipality that Attorney General Jeff Landry declares has adopted a sanctuary city policy.

The NOPD adopted a policy Feb. 28 that says police officers can't question victims or witnesses about their immigration status or stop people they presume to be in the country illegally. They also can't aid federal agents in enforcing immigration law except when public safety is under threat or a state or federal judge has issued a criminal arrest warrant.

The policy sparked feisty rhetoric in March from Sen. David Vitter, who called New Orleans Mayor Landrieu "incredibly naive" to support the policy, considering New Orleans' high crime rate. Landrieu returned fire, accusing Vitter of race-baiting and comparing his views to the xenophobia of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport 11 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States.

The letter from Gowdy and Goodlatte requested the Department of Justice turn over any communication with the City of New Orleans, starting in 2009 -- the year before Landrieu called federal officials to investigate the NOPD. The consent decree was signed in 2012.

City officials testified to a state House committee in April that the Justice Department's civil rights division and the monitors of the consent decree's implementation had vetted the NOPD "sanctuary city" policy.

Hodges' legislation, which Landry expressed support for in that April committee hearing, passed the House on May 4. A Senate judiciary committee is scheduled to discuss it Tuesday.

Gov. John Bel Edwards has expressed concern over the bill because it could undermine New Orleans construction projects and cede a lot of power to Landry.

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.s...ew_orlean.html