Sessions blasts Chicago mayor in sanctuary cities speech
By NOLAN D. MCCASKILL and MARC CAPUTO 08/16/2017 03:20 PM EDT Updated 08/16/2017 04:18 PM EDT
MIAMI — Attorney General Jeff Sessions came to Miami to trash Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
In a 30-minute speech on Wednesday criticizing Chicago’s “sanctuary city” policy, Sessions used Miami-Dade County as a foil to accuse Emanuel of neglecting murder rates associated with undocumented immigrants and putting federal funds at risk.
“If voters are concerned about losing federal grant money, call your mayor,” Sessions said in prepared remarks.
Chicago officials sued the Justice Department last week over DOJ’s plans to withhold federal grant funding to sanctuary cities.
Sessions rebutted the claim from Chicago officials that sanctuary-city policies help reduce crime by pointing to a lack of evidence and the city’s low murder investigation clearance rate. Sanctuary cities make law enforcement’s job more difficult, he argued, because witnesses will be reluctant to “risk their life” to report a crime with “no real consequences for the criminal.”
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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/16/jeff-sessions-sanctuary-cities-chicago-rahm-emanuel-241711