Andrew McCarthy writes at FoxNews.com about a new warning from a likely member of the incoming Trump administration.
In a recent television interview, prospective Trump administration border “czar” Tom Homan said that state officials will be liable to federal prosecution if they actively impede federal agents in the enforcement of immigration law — including apprehending and detaining illegal aliens.
In context, Homan was being asked about Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who has vowed that the city would protect non-citizens in “every possible way” from the Trump administration’s plans for large-scale deportations.
Homan made clear that the feds would not attempt to commandeer state and city officials. He acknowledged that such officials have no duty to help federal immigration agents. But they may not interfere with the agents in the execution of their duties or take affirmative steps to conceal or shield illegal immigrants from federal law enforcement.
Homan is right about this. …
… The Supreme Court has explained, in United States v. Gillock (1980), for example, that “in those areas where the Constitution grants the Federal Government the power to act, the Supremacy Clause dictates that federal enactments will prevail over competing state exercises of power.” As a result, state or municipal officials who are accused of violating federal criminal law will not be heard to claim in their defense that they were carrying out official state policies — even if those policies are codified in laws, regulations, or ordinances at the state or local levels.
Sanctuary cities have been tolerated for too long because Democrats — at the federal, state, and local levels — refuse to enforce federal law. But sanctuary cities have never been legal.
The Supreme Court has now held a number of times, including in Arizona v. United States (2015), that “the Government of the United States has broad, undoubted power over the subject of immigration and the status of aliens.” In Arizona vs. the United States, the Court went so far as to forbid the state from enforcing state laws that were designed to support federal immigration laws that the Obama-Biden administration did not want enforced.
