For Immediate Release // Please Excuse Cross Posting
April 11th, 2017
Contact: Armando Carmona, 323-250-3018; armando@ndlon.org;
NDLON: Initiative Meant to Bully Local Officials Has Opposite Effect
Los Angeles, CA – On Monday, the New York Times reported that the Trump administration will temporarily stop the publication of a weekly report of localities that have declined participating in federal immigration enforcement programs. The NY Times cites a series of inconsistencies in which several localities are incorrectly named in the report and contains “misleading information” that has prompted both “confusion” and “defiance” throughout several law enforcement agencies.
Salvador Sarmiento, NDLON National Campaigns Coordinator, issued the following statement:
“For years the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has long used double-speak to coerce local governments into criminalizing immigrants. But this initiative- meant to intimidate and bully local officials- has had the opposite effect. It is unaccountable even by Trump Administration standards, and it has exposed the Administration’s inability to control the growing rebellion against Trump’s xenophobic agenda.
“In California, for example, SB54 (“CA Values Act”) will likely pass, and when it does, it will constitute a repudiation of President Trump’s criminalizing agenda. As long as Trump advances an agenda fear and hate, the consensus against it will only grow stronger and louder.”
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Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued remarks on Tuesday morning “renewing the administration’s commitment” to “criminal immigration enforcement” citing a series of new priorities issued towards federal prosecutors.
NDLON Directors are available for comment***