Trump steps up immigration crackdown, warns city, state officials against interference

(Reuters)

WASHINGTON, Jan 22 – President Donald Trump‘s administration has directed U.S. prosecutors to criminally probe local officials who resist immigration enforcement efforts, intensifying a sweeping crackdown that Trump launched the day he took office.

In a memo seen by Reuters, Trump’s acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove, told Justice Department staff that state and local authorities must cooperate with the immigration crackdown and federal prosecutors “shall investigate incidents involving any such misconduct for potential prosecution.”

The Justice Department could also challenge laws that complicate the effort, Bove wrote.

The policy was issued as the new Republican administration prepared to step up policing of illegal immigration in cities with significant migrant populations, setting up potential confrontations with local officials in so-called sanctuary cities such as New York and Chicago that limit cooperation with such efforts.

The new memo underscored how Trump’s Justice Department may try to back his immigration agenda by expanding threats of criminal charges beyond immigrants or those who employ them to city and state officials. It is the latest in a series of executive actions Trump has taken to curb illegal immigration, his top priority.

During Trump’s first 2017-2021 term in office, many Democratic officials refused to cooperate with his enforcement efforts, and some vowed to defy him again.