New Orleans scrapped part of its sanctuary city policy last week, marking a retreat for both the city and the Obama administration, which had insisted the city shield illegal immigrants from federal deportation agents as part of an agreement to reduce racial profiling.
Officials announced the changes Tuesday at a congressional hearing, admitting they’d been alerted they may be breaking the intent of federal law by limiting their officers’ ability to communicate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Under the new change, city police can respond when ICE agents ask for help in holding an immigrant with a criminal record.
But officers are still prohibited from checking on someone’s immigration status, and the new policy does not make clear they are allowed to initiate contact with ICE agents themselves — worrying critics who said the city is still a sanctuary.
“What we have in the country is basically two types of sanctuary city policies. It’s either a don’t ask policy, or a don’t tell,” Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry told the House Judiciary Committee. “They seem to have remedied the don’t tell portion of that policy, but it doesn’t seem that they have made any change in the don’t ask portion.”
Sanctuary cities have become a major political issue in recent years, and particularly after the slaying in San Francisco in July 2015 of Kate Steinle, who was walking the city waterfront with her father. The man accused of shooting her is an illegal immigrant who had been deported five times before but had been shielded from a sixth deportation by San Francisco’s sanctuary policy.
The Obama administration itself is divided.
ICE, the agency within Homeland Security that’s responsible for deportations, has pushed for better cooperation, identifying more than 300 jurisdictions that work in some way to thwart deportation efforts.
But the Justice Department’s political leadership has defended sanctuary cities, and even pushed for New Orleans to adopt a sanctuary policy as part of new rules governing the city’s policing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney General Vanita Gupta said New Orleans had asked the federal government for help in 2010, after the city’s mayor said his police force had gone off the rails, rife with accusations against officers of rape and other violent crimes — as well as a reputation for corruption.
As part of its report, the Justice Department concluded that officers engaged in discriminatory policing and insisted on changes. Last year the police department, the Justice Department and the federal courts agreed to new rules that included the sanctuary policy.
Ms. Gupta said the new policy builds “a culture of trust and cooperation” with immigrants, who she said are now more likely to report crimes and cooperate with police in other investigations because they don’t fear being deported.
But the Justice Department’s own watchdog said in a report earlier this year that those sorts of policies could break federal law that requires cooperation between localities and ICE.
Michael E. Horowitz, the inspector general for the department, said the new policy agreed to on Friday does solve part of the sanctuary problem, but said it’s “a reasonable question” whether the changes go far enough to comply with the law.
After his report the Justice Department was forced to warn sanctuary cities they could lose access to some federal money if they are blocking cooperation.
Ms. Gupta told the committee Tuesday she thought New Orleans’ original policy complied with law despite Mr. Horowitz’s concerns. She said the Justice Department and New Orleans agreed to the changes “out of an abundance of caution,” and insisted the new policy — even lacking full cooperation — is legal.
Rep. Cedric L. Richmond, a Louisiana Democrat who represents New Orleans, bristled at the attention on his city, and demanded to know why other states’ sanctuary policies weren’t getting the same attention — particularly those in states with lawmakers who were part of Tuesday’s hearing.
“If you’re going to start cleaning up, start cleaning up at home,” he said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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