President Trump’s Justice Department is exploring new ways to take down so-called “sanctuary cities” via legal methods, according to a new report.



The Wall Street Journal reports that the DOJ is developing legal strategies to cancel out sanctuary cities across the country. The goal for DOJ would be to effectively force cities to comply with federal officials, according to the report.

A senior DOJ attorney told the newspaper that the department is pursuing several different options. One option would see Justice officials argue that local police departments refusing to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement illegally pre-empts federal law.

ADVERTISEMENT

Another would argue that municipalities refusing to comply with ICE are discriminating against ICE because those cities honor requests from other federal agencies, like the FBI.

The DOJ source also said that the federal government is seeking friendly court circuits to present cases against sanctuary cities, and expressed hope that as Trump fills more vacancies on federal courts, the DOJ’s chances of securing a legal victory will improve, according to the Journal.

Trump and his Justice Department have clashed with sanctuary cities since the beginning of his presidency. His first budget proposal included several changes to immigration law that would crack down on sanctuary cities.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsRoy Moore sues Alabama over COVID-19 restrictions GOP set to release controversial Biden report Trump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs MORE also announced in March that local governments seeking DOJ grants would not be able to receive those grants if they are a sanctuary city.