California counters Sessions’ claims on sanctuary cities

Attorney General Jeff Sessions lashed out at so-called sanctuary cities Thursday. Attorney General Jeff Sessions lashed out at so-called sanctuary cities Thursday. Photo: Olivier Douliery, TNS Photo: Olivier Douliery, TNS Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close California counters Sessions’ claims on sanctuary cities 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Attorney General Jeff Sessions lashed out at so-called sanctuary cities Thursday and said some of the 10 state and local governments whose immigration policies his office is reviewing — a group that includes the state of California — appear to be defying federal law.

But a California agency said the state is fully complying with the law.

The altercation comes as President Trump’s administration prepares to ask a federal judge in San Francisco next week to dismiss lawsuits by San Francisco, Santa Clara County and the city of Richmond challenging Trump’s authority to cut off funding to cities and counties that refuse to cooperate with his immigration policies.

Meanwhile, California lawmakers are considering legislation to tighten laws that already restrict the role of local law enforcement in immigration enforcement.

Sessions’ Justice Department is studying responses from eight local governments in other states, including the cities of New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, and the states of California and Connecticut to queries from President Barack Obama’s administration last year about policies that restrict local contact with federal immigration officers.

“Sanctuary cities put the lives and well-being of their residents at risk by shielding criminal illegal aliens from federal immigration authorities,” Sessions said Thursday. The Justice Department said some state or local governments, not identified, “have boldly asserted they will not comply with requests from federal immigration authorities, and this would potentially violate” federal law.

The department did not specify the “requests” that were being defied. Sessions, in a speech in March and other statements, has indicated he believes the law requires local agencies to keep noncitizens locked up after serving jail sentences if immigration agents want them held for deportation.

California law allows local governments to comply with such federal “detainer” requests only if the detainee has been convicted of or charged with a serious crime. San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities go further and forbid such cooperation in most cases without a court order.

The state’s response to the Justice Department inquiry said California is complying with its sole obligation under federal law: to let local police share any information they have with federal agents about the immigration status of a local jail inmate.

California laws “ensure certain protections for persons in the custody of local law enforcement,” such as the right to refuse to speak to an immigration agent, but “do not prohibit or in any way restrict the sharing of citizenship or immigration status information,” Aaron Maguire, general counsel for the Board of State and Community Corrections, said in a letter to the Justice Department.

“Detainer” requests, to keep inmates in jail until immigration agents arrive, are “voluntary” under federal law, Maguire said.

The other state and local governments have also denied violating the law. Sessions said his department “will examine these claims carefully.”

Trump issued an executive order Jan. 25 saying he would cut off federal funding to sanctuary cities and counties, but did not define “sanctuary” or specify what funds he would eliminate. U.S. District Judge William Orrick ruled in April that the wording of Trump’s order suggested a threat to all federal grants — as much as $2 billion a year for San Francisco — and said such an action would exceed the president’s legal authority.

Justice Department lawyers have argued that the cutoff would affect only a few immigration-related grants, which local governments received on the condition that they abide by immigration laws. The department has asked Orrick to reconsider his nationwide injunction and dismiss the lawsuits, a request the judge will take up Wednesday.

Local cooperation with federal immigration detainers became a heated issue after a San Francisco woman, Kathryn Steinle, was shot to death on a pier in July 2015 by an immigrant with a record of deportations.

The shooter, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, had just spent 46 months in federal prison for illegal re-entry when federal officials turned him over to San Francisco in March 2015 to face an old marijuana charge. City prosecutors dropped the charge, and then-Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, citing the city’s sanctuary ordinance, released Lopez-Sanchez, disregarding immigration officials’ request to hold him until they could pick him up.

Lopez-Sanchez, charged with murder, has said the shooting was an accident, noting that the bullet bounced off the pavement before striking the 32-year-old victim.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko