Justice Department Sues California Over Impeding Immigration Enforcement 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Charles Reed/AP Charles Reed/AP 
 
 Updated at 9:20 p.m. ET 
 
 The Justice Department is suing California and two top state officials, accusing them of interfering with federal immigration efforts by passing and enforcing state laws that hinder U.S. operations against undocumented people. 
 
 The lawsuit filed late Tuesday in federal court in Sacramento, Calif., points out that the Constitution gives the U.S. government sweeping authority over immigration. 
 
 Justice Department lawyers argue that California is blocking enforcement efforts by the Department of Homeland Security and imposing other, impermissible obligations on the federal government. Federal authorities said that evades common sense and has the potential to endanger communities in California and beyond. 
 
 The new federal case represents an escalation of the long-running battle between the Trump administration and California, whose Democratic governor, Jerry Brown, and attorney general, Xavier Becerra, have positioned themselves as ideological opponents to the White House on matters from immigration and climate change to criminal justice. 
 
 Echoing the tone and favored language of President Trump on Twitter, Gov. Brown issued a statement Tuesday night that called the federal lawsuit "SAD!!!" and a political stunt. 
 
 Last year, California lawmakers passed three immigration-related laws that feature prominently in the new lawsuit. One bars private employers from voluntarily cooperating with federal immigration officials and requires businesses to notify workers in advance of a federal raid. 
 
 A second law restricts state and local law enforcement from voluntarily sharing information with the feds about the release dates of undocumented people in their custody. That law also bars the transfer of undocumented people into federal custody. The third law under federal challenge covers state inspections of detention facilities that hold noncitizens in federal custody. 
 
 The Justice Department is asking for a preliminary injunction to block those three laws. To advance their cause, federal lawyers cite a 2012 Supreme Court dispute, in which the Obama administration sued Arizona over its punitive law meant to crack down on immigrants there. 
 
 A divided Supreme Court eventually ruled parts of the state law were "pre-empted" under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. In essence, the court's five-justice majority said that federal law trumps state law in the immigration area, lest each state develop its own policy toward immigrants. 
 
 Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a longtime proponent of immigration restrictions, will speak Wednesday at an annual Law Enforcement Legislative Day hosted by the California Peace Officers' Association in Sacramento. 
 
 "The Department of Justice and the Trump administration are going to fight these unjust, unfair and unconstitutional policies that have been imposed on you," Sessions will tell that group, according to an advance excerpt of his remarks. "We are fighting to make your jobs safer and to help you reduce crime in America." 
 
 Becerra, a former Democratic representative, will speak to the same group later Wednesday. 
 
 In his statement, the state's governor took on Sessions. "At a time of unprecedented political turmoil, Jeff Sessions has come to California to further divide and polarize America," Brown said. "Jeff, these political stunts may be the norm in Washington, but they don't work here. SAD!!!" 
 
 In D.C., senior Justice Department officials said California had acted in "quite obviously novel ways" and that the state laws there were "glaring and in some respects go beyond what we've seen" elsewhere. Those officials said the Justice Department is in the process of reviewing other state immigration laws. 
 
 The U.S. Justice Department is also locked in courtroom battles with California and other jurisdictions over its threats to withhold federal law enforcement grant money from sanctuary cities, which refuse to voluntarily share information with immigration agents. ||||| After Rahm sues feds, A.G. Jeff Sessions blisters ‘lawless’ Chicago 
 
 Mayor Rahm Emanuel, with Police Supt. Eddie Johnson (left) and U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (right) announces a federal lawsuit challenging the Justice Department's threats to withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities and states. | Nader Issa/Sun-Times 
 
 Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday blasted the “political leadership of Chicago” and “the culture of lawlessness that has beset the city” just hours after Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration sued Sessions to bar him from cutting federal crimefighting funds to sanctuary cities. 
 
 Rather than take a hands-off approach to the now-pending litigation, Sessions stepped up attacks on Chicago, the city that has been repeatedly bashed by President Donald Trump because of its ongoing problems with controlling crime. 
 
 “To a degree perhaps unsurpassed by any other jurisdiction, the political leadership of Chicago has chosen deliberately and intentionally to adopt a policy that obstructs this country’s lawful immigration system,” Sessions said in a prepared statement. “They have demonstrated an open hostility to enforcing laws designed to protect law enforcement — federal, state, and local — and reduce crime, and instead have adopted an official policy of protecting criminal aliens who prey on their own residents. 
 
 “This is astounding given the unprecedented violent crime surge in Chicago, with the number of murders in 2016 surpassing both New York and Los Angeles combined. The city’s leaders cannot follow some laws and ignore others and reasonably expect this horrific situation to improve. 
 
 “The mayor complains that the federal government’s focus on enforcing the law would require a ‘reordering of law enforcement practice in Chicago.’ But that’s just what Chicago needs: a recommitment to the rule of law and to policies that roll back the culture of lawlessness that has beset the city.” 
 
 Though the Trump administration has attempted to link sanctuary-city status to the city’s crime problem, the Chicago Sun-Times has reported that illegal immigrants have played no role in the overwhelming majority of the murders that have put the city in the national spotlight. 
 
 “I have been a police officer for more than 30 years, and the federal government’s plans will hamper community policing and public safety,” Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said in response to Sessions. “Undocumented immigrants are not driving violence in Chicago, and that’s why I want our officers focused on community policing and not trying to be the immigration police.” 
 
 With the filing of the lawsuit against Sessions, Chicago becomes the fourth city to wage a legal battle against the Trump administration bid to cut the crimefighting grants to sanctuary local governments. 
 
 Other lawsuits to block the Justice Department from punishing cities shielding illegal immigrants from federal immigration agents have been filed in federal courts in Seattle, and in California: Santa Clara and San Francisco. 
 
 And while each has its own unique facts and circumstances, Chicago’s legal team is tapped in to the loose network of lawyers that has formed for many of these sanctuary cities. 
 
 “We are in regular contact with lawyers in cities and counties around the country related to these issues,” city Corporation Counsel Ed Siskel said – including from New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Philadelphia. 
 
 Chicago’s 46-page complaint asks U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber — assigned to the case Monday — to stop the Justice Department from enforcing new conditions it has attached to the grant funds. 
 
 The city appears to be making a solid legal case, according to two experts from the University of Chicago Law School: Professor Aziz Huq and Assistant Professor Daniel Hemel. Both pointed out that, according to the city’s lawsuit, Congress did not give the Justice Department the power to create new conditions when it created the grant program. 
 
 The Justice Department in recent days detailed the new rule and conditions sanctuary jurisdictions must follow. The first condition would require the city to give the feds, when they ask for it, a 48-hour heads up of the scheduled release date and time “of an alien in the jurisdiction’s custody.” 
 
 The second would require the city to give the feds access to “any correctional or detention facility in order to meet with an alien . . . and inquire as to his or her right to be or remain in the United States.” However, the city points out in its lawsuit that Chicago does not have a jail — only 18 temporary police “lockup” facilities. 
 
 The city claims the Justice Department is also asking it to again certify its compliance with a federal law barring local governments from not sharing immigration status information with the feds. It is asking to the city to do so “under the cloud of confusion” created by the new grant conditions, the city is alleging. ||||| Attorney General Jeff Sessions' combative statement, which accused Chicago officials of adopting "an official policy of protecting criminal aliens," is likely to be well received by President Donald Trump. | Andrew Harnik/AP Sessions blasts Rahm Emanuel over sanctuary suit 
 
 Attorney General Jeff Sessions lashed out at Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday, delivering an unusually caustic reaction to a new lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's plans to crack down on so-called sanctuary cities. 
 
 Emanuel announced the filing of the suit earlier in the day, complaining about a new Justice Department policy attempting to cut off grants to police departments that decline to cooperate with federal immigration officials. 
 
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 Sessions' barbed reply argued that record numbers of murders in Chicago in recent years were attributable at least in part to Emanuel's decision to stick with a sanctuary policy that encourages police to ignore the immigration status of those they encounter. 
 
 "No amount of federal taxpayer dollars will help a city that refuses to help its own residents," Sessions said. "To a degree perhaps unsurpassed by any other jurisdiction, the political leadership of Chicago has chosen deliberately and intentionally to adopt a policy that obstructs this country’s lawful immigration system." 
 
 The attorney general's combative statement, which accused Chicago officials of adopting "an official policy of protecting criminal aliens," is likely to be well received by President Donald Trump. He has regularly blasted Chicago over crime, accusing it of being too lax in its response to the surge in violence there. 
 
 Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson pushed back against the attorney general's portrayal. 
 
 "Undocumented immigrants are not driving violence in Chicago, and that's why I want our officers focused on community policing and not trying to be the immigration police," he said. 
 
 He also said that "the federal government's plans will hamper community policing and public safety." 
 
 Sessions' statement comes amid what appears to be his concerted effort to curry favor with Trump after the president made a series of comments last month expressing dissatisfaction with Sessions and said he regretted picking him as attorney general. 
 
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 "This is astounding given the unprecedented violent crime surge in Chicago, with the number of murders in 2016 surpassing both New York and Los Angeles combined," Sessions said. "The city’s leaders cannot follow some laws and ignore others and reasonably expect this horrific situation to improve." 
 
 “This administration will not simply give away grant dollars to city governments that proudly violate the rule of law and protect criminal aliens at the expense of public safety," Sessions added. "So it’s this simple: Comply with the law or forgo taxpayer dollars." 
 
 However, the new lawsuit argues it's the Justice Department that isn't complying with the law. No law obliges local governments to actively assist immigration officers or to notify them when illegal immigrants are released from jail. 
 
 The Trump administration is trying to add such requirements to certain law-enforcement grants issued in the future, but Chicago's suit contends that Justice Department officials lack the authority to add anti-sanctuary-city requirements beyond a single provision barring grant recipients from policies that punish officers for contacting federal officials about a suspected undocumented immigrant. 
 
 Other cities are considering similar lawsuits. Indeed, localities in California and Massachusetts have filed legal challenges to an early Trump executive order that many saw as threatening a broad crackdown on sanctuary cities. Emanuel and many law enforcement leaders argue that the policies benefit public safety by encouraging undocumented immigrants to cooperate and communicate with police. 
 
 “Chicago is a welcoming city and always will be, and we will not be blackmailed by President Trump's Justice Department," Emanuel said as he announced the suit. "Forcing us to choose between our values and our police department’s philosophy of community policing is a false choice, and it is a choice that would ultimately undermine our public safety agenda."
– The nation's debate on sanctuary cities and states is about to play out front and center in a federal courtroom. The Justice Department is suing the state of California over three new laws that provide protection to undocumented immigrants, reports NPR. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will be in the state Wednesday to lay out his case that California is hindering the federal government's ability to enforce immigration laws, reports the Los Angeles Times. The laws, all passed last year, deal with how businesses and law enforcement agencies in the state cooperate with federal immigration officials. For example, one makes it illegal for private employers to help agents track down undocumented workers unless they're bound to do so by a court order. "The Department of Justice and the Trump administration are going to fight these unjust, unfair, and unconstitutional policies that are imposed on you," Sessions will say in a speech to the California Peace Officers Association. California Gov. Jerry Brown was already tweeting in response, with a not-so-subtle dig at President Trump's tweeting style. “At a time of unprecedented political turmoil, Jeff Sessions has come to California to further divide and polarize America," he wrote. "Jeff, these political stunts may be the norm in Washington, but they don’t work here. SAD!!!” The case is not only a big escalation of the fight between the feds and California, it could have big consequences across the country in other states and cities with similar laws, notes the Washington Post.