By Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump’s administration has directed U.S. prosecutors to criminally probe state and local officials who resist immigration enforcement efforts, intensifying a sweeping crackdown that Trump launched the day he took office.
In a memo to Justice Department staff seen by Reuters, Trump’s acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove, wrote, “Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing or otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands and requests.”
The policy was issued as the new Republican administration prepares 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.
Trump has directed the U.S. military to aid border security, issued a broad ban on asylum and taken steps to restrict citizenship for children born on American soil. A U.S. official said on Wednesday the military would dispatch 1,000 additional active-duty troops to the Mexico-U.S. border.
The administration has rescinded guidance from his Democratic predecessor, President Joe Biden that had limited immigration arrests near sensitive places, such as schools and churches. Trump has also expanded immigration officers’ power to deport migrants who cannot prove they have been in the U.S. for longer than two years, paving the way for increased enforcement.
Trump has separately taken aim at federal diversity programs, ordering agencies to put officials overseeing diversity, equity and inclusion programs on leave by Wednesday and to shut down DEI offices by the end of the month.
The swift actions signal Trump’s intention to fulfill many of his culture-war campaign promises by pushing the limits of executive power even further than he did during his first term from 2017 to 2021.
Americans are sharply divided on Trump’s plans for mass deportations. A new Reuters/Ipsos survey showed 39% agreed that “illegal immigrants should be arrested and put in detention camps while awaiting deportation hearings,” while 42% disagreed and the rest were unsure.
Some 46% of respondents said they approved of how Trump was handling immigration policy, compared with 39% who disapproved. Most respondents who backed mass arrests identified as Republicans, while most who did not were Democrats.
The poll, which surveyed adults nationwide on Jan. 20-21, found 58% of respondents agreed that the U.S. should “dramatically reduce the number of migrants allowed to claim asylum at the border,” while 22% disagreed.
‘SCARE TACTIC’
State and local officials who resist or obstruct immigration enforcement could be charged under federal laws against defrauding the U.S. or harboring immigrants who are in the U.S. unlawfully, according to the memo.
Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta dismissed it as a “scare tactic” during a Wednesday interview on CNN.
“We are very well aware of what the law requires us to do and what it permits us to do,” he said. “We know that we don’t have to participate in immigration enforcement activities.”
Of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally or with temporary status in 2022, about 44% lived in states with “sanctuary” laws that limit cooperation. That figure does not include those in sanctuary cities and counties in places without a statewide law, such as New Mexico.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration fired four of the department’s senior career immigration officials from the Executive Office of Immigration Review, which runs immigration courts, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Those removed included the office’s former director Mary Cheng and Chief Immigration Judge Sheila McNulty, who was previously listed on a “Bureaucrat Watch List” by the conservative American Accountability Foundation, the sources said.
In Mexico, authorities have begun constructing giant tent shelters in the city of Ciudad Juarez to prepare for a possible influx of deported Mexicans.
DIVERSITY PROGRAMS SHUT DOWN
Trump has ordered all federal agencies to shut down their DEI programs, which are intended to promote opportunities for women, ethnic minorities, LGBT people and other traditionally underrepresented groups.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman sent an email on Wednesday telling employees to report any attempts “to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language” in contracts or job descriptions since the Nov. 5 election.
Any tips should be sent to a “DEIAtruth@opm.gov” email account, Huffman said, and workers who fail to report any information will face “adverse consequences.”
Trump’s actions mark a significant blow to decades-long efforts to ensure equality in federal hiring and contracts and could have a chilling effect on diversity efforts extending beyond the purview of the federal government.
On Tuesday night, Trump rescinded an order signed in 1965 by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson that prohibited federal contractors from discriminating in employment and required affirmative action to ensure equal opportunity based on race, color, religion and national origin.
Trump is seeking to dissuade private companies that receive government contracts from favoring employees from marginalized backgrounds – what the administration called “illegal DEI discrimination and preferences” – and asked government agencies to identify private companies that might be subject to civil investigation.
Johnson’s order was seen as a key moment of progress during the civil rights movement, coming at a time when Black Americans faced the threat of violence and discriminatory “Jim Crow” laws. Trump’s order will directly affect companies that fulfilled more than $759 billion in federal contracts in 2023, as well as private companies.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson, David Ljunggren, Kat Stafford and Andrea Shalal; Writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, Will Dunham and Howard Goller)
