L.A. Mayor Sets Up Justice Fund to Protect Criminal Aliens

The mayor of Los Angeles has set up a “justice fund” to help, among others, criminal illegal aliens fight deportation orders.

In an interview with Fox News Channel’s William La Jeunesse, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced he was creating the L.A. Justice Center with the goal of raising millions of dollars to provide legal assistance to immigrants facing deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. The sanctuary city mayor made the move in advance of the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

“The reason it was important for us to act is we will have a change in government,” Garcetti said during a press conference. “We expect there could be actions right away.”

The change of which he speaks was Friday’s inauguration of President Trump. Trump has pledged to eliminate sanctuary cities, remove criminal aliens, and secure the nations borders

Garcetti claimed he established the fund to fight for the “good and law-abiding immigrants of Los Angeles.” However, when asked if he would exclude immigrants with criminal histories, he replied no, Fox News reported.

These are the kinds of actions being taken by many cities and other sanctuary jurisdictions to thumb their noses at federal immigration law. The action appears to be in direct violation with federal law that requires local and state jurisdictions to cooperate 100 percent of the time with immigration officials in order to receive federal funding, Breitbart Texas reported.

“99 percent is not good enough,” U.S. Representative John Culberson (R-TX) stated. “These jurisdictions must cooperate 100 percent in order to qualify for these DOJ grants. They must choose between protecting illegal aliens and receiving federal funds.”

The law Culberson refers to is 8 U.S.C. § 1373.

Section 1373 states in relevant part:

(a) In General. Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal, State, or local law, a Federal, State, or local government entity or official may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any· government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, the Immigration and Naturalization Service information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.

(b) Additional authority of government entities. Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal, State, or local law, no person or agency may prohibit, or in any way restrict, a Federal, State, or local government entity from doing any of the following with respect to information regarding the immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual:

( 1) Sending such information to, or requesting or receiving such information from, the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
(2) Maintaining such information.
(3) Exchanging such information with any other Federal, State, or local government entity.

Throughout 2016, Culberson worked with the Department of Justice to enforce the law. The Attorney General’s Office of Inspector General went to work on a list of more than 300 sanctuary jurisdictions and certified the top 10 non-compliant jurisdictions–a step required for the DOJ to cut federal law enforcement grants.

Los Angeles, and the entire State of California, were certified as not being in compliance and were notified they will not be eligible to apply for grants this fiscal year unless they change their sanctuary policies. The move by the DOJ could cost the State of California more than $132 million in federal grants this year alone.

“It is not just future funds that are at risk for these sanctuary jurisdictions,” Culberson, who chairs the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science, explained . “The DOJ can force them to reimburse funds received from these grant programs in the past. This means, the State of California could be forced to repay the more than $3 billion in grants received over the past 10 years.”

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @. BobPriceBBTX.