Justice Department says it will prosecute local officials over immigration enforcement

The Washington Post ^ | January 22, 2025 9:13 AM EST | Maria Sacchetti, Jeremy Roebuck

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The Trump administration late Tuesday directed federal prosecutors nationwide to investigate and potentially prosecute state and local officials who don’t cooperate with the president’s plans to carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in U.S. history, according to a document obtained by The Washington Post.

In a memo to Justice Department employees, acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove wrote that the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution and other legal authorities, “require state and local actors to comply with the Executive Branch’s immigration enforcement initiatives.”

“Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands,” wrote Bove, a former federal prosecutor who spent recent years in private practice and was one of Donald Trump’s defense lawyers in his criminal cases.

Bove ordered U.S. attorneys’ offices nationwide to “investigate incidents involving any such misconduct for potential prosecution,” including for harboring an immigrant in the United States illegally, failing to share information about a person’s immigration status with the federal government and conspiracy — crimes that carry potential prison terms upon conviction.

Any refusals to prosecute someone for “resistance, obstruction or other noncompliance” with commands or requests from U.S. immigration officers will be sent to the Justice Department as an “urgent” report, the memo says.

Bove’s directive, which responds to executive orders Trump signed on his first day in office Monday, is likely to face fierce blowback from legal advocacy groups and officials in cities and states led by Democrats. Those jurisdictions tussled with Trump over the issue during his first term.

Many lawyers say it is legal for state and local officials to stay out of most immigration enforcement. City officials in Chicago reaffirmed their refusal to cooperate with enforcement last week amid rumors of imminent immigration...

[scouter]

Yeah, well there IS that!