The City of Chicago has filed suit against the Department of Justice in a battle over the Trump Administration’s immigration policies. Chicago police will not give the feds information about or access to people in custody unless they are wanted on criminal warrants. The D-O-J is threatening to withhold money. The same could happen to Lorain.
Lorain police chief Cel Rivera says his office won’t send the feds immigration status of Lorain residents. But, he told a forum at the Cleveland ACLU, for the first time he’s seeing some federal grant applications for the police department make that demand.
“It’s just become exacerbated this past year with this environment of hate and fear and divisiveness and I think it’s time for all of us, especially in law enforcement, to reflect about what kind of America do we really want. “
Katrice Williams of the ACLU says THE Trump Administration may be able to withhold grants, but it can’t control all federal funding.
“They cannot hold money for bridges, for schools, for hospital care. Neither can the President. Its Congress that enters into contracts with municipalities and states regarding infrastructure and things like that.”
Chief Rivera’s father was recruited to come to Lorain from Puerto Rico in 1948 to work in a steel mill. About 25% of the city is now Hispanic.
He says immigrants without documents are afraid of his police officers and are being victimized by employers and criminals who know they won’t go to the police.