Philip Holloway: ‘Power of the Purse’ Is Sessions’ Biggest Weapon Against Sanctuary Cities

Legal analyst Philip Holloway discussed sanctuary cities and federal funding, as well as other issues in the news, with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Tuesday.

Regarding Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ cracking down on sanctuary cities, Holloway said, “The biggest thing that he has at his disposal is, of course, the power of the purse. And there’s who knows how much money that goes to local and state law enforcement agencies from the federal government in the form of various grants. There’s just no way to calculate the number; it’s just massive.”

Holloway continued, “To withhold massive amounts of federal money because a sheriff or a police chief just decides that they’re not going to honor ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] holds, as a taxpayer is, I think, irresponsible. It places a bigger burden on the local taxpayer to support the law enforcement services that the taxpayers receive.”

Continuing his criticism of sanctuary cities, Holloway said, “It creates an incentive for undocumented or illegal aliens to move to a certain jurisdiction. It pulls on their social services, and the other thing that you’ve got to keep in mind if you create this sanctuary city, you’re creating an environment where you’re basically inviting illegal aliens to come there. And if they think they’re doing a service of some type to immigrants, they’re mistaken.”

“If I’m in charge of local Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” he went on, “and I know that county A or B, or city A or B, is not complying with federal law, I’m going to target my enforcement actions there because it becomes a target-rich environment. So it’s really an ill-conceived policy from many different angles for a jurisdiction to decide that they’re going to label themselves as a sanctuary city. They’re not doing immigrants any favors at all.”

Concerning recent intelligence leaks involving Trump, Holloway said, “The smoking gun if you will hear that a crime has occurred is any given newspaper article the New York Times, or whatever, that cites unnamed sources in the intelligence community tell us XYZ – because if X,Y and Z is classified material and the New York Times or any other media outlet is reporting on it, that’s the smoking gun, and you can make the argument that that is sedition.”

Continued Holloway, “I mean it’s really Watergate on steroids because you have the federal government itself, this inner machinery, operating directly against the commander-in-chief and operating against the best interests of the United States. So that is the smoking gun.”

Holloway said it is “breathtaking that you’ve got members of the intelligence community committing treason, or, you know, espionage against its own government. It blows my mind, and I think it needs to be the primary focus of all of these investigations.”

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