Trump DOJ Orders Probes Into State, Local Immigration Resistors

A high-ranking Trump Justice Department official Tuesday ordered criminal investigations into state and local actors that obstruct federal immigration orders, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg Law.

The message to all DOJ employees from the new acting deputy attorney general lays out a “newly established Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group.” The project, which involves the Civil Division, will focus on identifying state and local laws that clash with executive branch immigration initiatives and to challenge those policies in court where appropriate, the memo said.

Emil Bove, who has been Trump’s criminal defense lawyer, was installed Jan. 20 as DOJ’s interim second-in-command and top political appointee. He instructed DOJ prosecutors to investigate such immigration resistance from state and local actors, warning that the Supremacy Clause requires compliance.

Bove said US attorney’s offices and trial attorneys at department headquarters shall pursue investigations under various statutes, including a law forbidding conspiracies to defraud or commit offenses against the US, which carries a prison sentence of up to five years.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement lacks the personnel to carry out the scale of arrests and deportations Trump has promised, making cooperation from local officials critical.

“The Justice Department’s responsibility” includes “aggressive enforcement of laws enacted by Congress, as well as vigorous defense of the President’s actions on behalf of the United States against legal challenges,” Bove wrote. “The Department’s personnel must come together in the offices that taxpayers have funded to do this vitally important work.”

DOJ spokespersons didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The message, which is the first known department-wide communication from Bove, comes as the federal workforce faces major changes from Trump’s executive actions.

A sanctuary city isn’t a formal designation but a catch-all term for jurisdictions that generally decline to police individuals’ immigration status or assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement with arrests.

Trump officials have pledged to withhold funding for those that don’t cooperate with ICE, but the memo marks an escalation in that fight.

Leaders of Chicago, Denver, and other left-leaning cities projected defiance in the face of Trump’s return to office, pledging to fight elements of his immigration and mass deportation agenda.

The Justice Department memo represents the Trump administration’s latest effort to crack down on illegal immigration.

The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday relaunched asylum restrictions at the border, cut off legal pathways, and scrapped a Biden-era policy directing enforcement officers to avoid churches, schools, and other sensitive sites.