Updates | The Week of July 24, 2017
Eve Levin // 7/30/17 //
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled that ICE cannot ask state law enforcement to detain individuals solely for the purpose of immigration enforcement, essentially declaring the Commonwealth a sanctuary state (WSJ, NYT, Reuters, Boston Herald).
- The Court’s opinion is here.
- Nikolas Bowie details the case of Sreynoun Lunn and how the Court reached its decision at Take Care.
- Kevin Johnson at ImmigrationProf Blog and César Hernández at Crimmigration summarize the issue.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions will not allow sanctuary cities to qualify for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, which provides funds for law enforcement programs (CBS News).
- While this is a major funding program, it is only one such program, notes Kevin Johnson on ImmigrationProf Blog.
- States reacted to the latest attempt to withhold federal grant money from sanctuary cities (Boston Globe, Politico, Vox).
- DOJ’s plan to deny federal grants to sanctuary cities is a dangerous attack on federalism and separation of powers principles, argues Ilya Somin at The Volokh Conspiracy.
Efforts to defund cities that don’t provide local jail access to ICE agents are ramping up (Vox, Boston Globe).