As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, a major
showdown looms between his administration and cities across the country
over one of his hallmark campaign issues: illegal immigration.
At the Southern border, agents are on pace to
apprehend almost 600,000 illegal immigrants, the highest number in eight
years. The surge is coming largely from Central American migrants, far
outpacing those from Mexico.
"They're mobilizing because they don't know what
tomorrow will bring, but know today they can cross,” said Chris Cabrera,
of the National Border Patrol Council.
Many illegal immigrants from Central America indeed
have been motivated to make the trek after word traveled under the Obama
administration that some could request asylum, claiming a “credible
fear” of persecution should they return home.
But another driver is the knowledge that certain
major cities offer “sanctuary” protections from deportation. Those same
cities are now gearing up to fight on their illegal immigrant residents’
behalf against the incoming president.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the
creation of the L.A. Justice Fund, a multi-million dollar fund to
provide legal assistance to immigrants facing deportation.
“The reason it was important for us to act is we will
have a change in government next month,” he said. “We expect there
could be actions right away.”
In announcing the fund, Garcetti vowed to fight for
the “good and law-abiding immigrants of Los Angeles.” Asked if those
with a criminal record would be excluded, however, he said no.
But such cities could be in for a major battle with
the Trump administration, following campaign vows to deny federal funds
to sanctuary cities.
Texas GOP Rep. John Culberson says federal law
prohibits local and state law enforcement from refusing to share
immigration status information with federal authorities. He believes the
law will give Trump the power to follow through in denying funds to
sanctuary cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
“The president can cut off their money at noon on
January 20, 2017 if they do not change their sanctuary policy and hand
over criminal illegal aliens in their custody to be deported,” Culberson
told Fox News.
Culberson, chairman of the House Appropriations
subcommittee overseeing the Department of Justice, added that President
Obama’s attorney general not only is aware of the policy, but signed off
on tying suspected violations to potential financial penalties.
“I quietly persuaded Attorney General Loretta Lynch
to implement this new policy this past July,” he said. “So it’s already
done.”
The Immigration Legal Resource Center disagrees, arguing that certain sanctuary policies do not violate federal law.
This gap in interpretation sets up a battle with 100
or so cities that stand to lose substantial federal funds should they
refuse to cooperate in the Trump administration’s promised deportation
efforts.
The traffic at the border, meanwhile, continues to surge.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that last
month alone, agents arrested 7,406 unaccompanied children and 15,573
families from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, a significant surge
compared with the same month one year ago, when the agency apprehended
5,604 children and 6,471 families.
Under current policy for those seeking asylum, Border
Patrol agents are required to process the immigrants for their day in
court, which entitles them to a work permit and a plane or bus ticket to
stay with relatives until it’s time to see an immigration judge. The
typical wait-time is four to five years and, according to government
data, up to 80 percent never show up.
The federal agency that handles deportations is
spending, on average, $665 per juvenile to pay for travel to relatives
in the U.S. or back home if they’re deported, according to calculations
by the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a government watchdog group.
That puts the current taxpayer cost at roughly $5 million a month.
With monthly apprehensions at a five-year high, border agents say they are slammed.
"We're not a deterrent because they're looking for
us, so we can be standing there and [the smuggler will] still send them
across," said Texas-based agent Marlene Castro. "It's been a group, and
then maybe five minutes later another group, and then half an hour later
you'll see another one."