Krasner says he won’t enforce Trump’s immigration orders if they are illegal

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said his office will not comply with any immigration orders issued by President Donald Trump’s administration that could cause his staff to break the law, and that his position will not be influenced by the Justice Department memo hazardous consequencesincluding potential criminal charges for local officials who do not cooperate with Trump’s planned immigration crackdown.

Krasner, a Democrat who is up for re-election this year and who has long been critical of Trump, made the comment shortly afterward in a Wednesday interview Department of Justice memowritten by Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, it was published by various news outlets.

The district attorney also spoke as officials in Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration testified before the City Council and said they were reviewing the executive actions signed by the newly sworn-in Republican president. City attorney Renee Garcia said Philadelphia’s status as a sanctuary city remains unchanged and that officials will continue to employ a variety of practices regarding how and when agencies interact with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including complying with federal immigration detention requests , who were arrested only when an arrest warrant was attached to the application.

In a Trump administration memo, Bove wrote that local officials are legally obligated to cooperate with the Justice Department under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause and urged federal prosecutors to investigate any cases in which local agencies or employees might “resist, obstruct, or otherwise manner of failing to comply with lawful immigration-related orders.”

“Indeed,” Bove wrote, “it is the responsibility of the Department of Justice to defend the Constitution and, by extension, legally implement the policies that the American people elected President Trump to implement.”

The memo cites a conspiracy crime as well as a law against illegally harboring people in the country as potential avenues for prosecution.

Krasner said there is no question that public officials “must comply with constitutionally supported laws requiring specific conduct.” However, he said he doubted whether the note was actually intended to make that point.

Instead, he said, it sounded as if the new Justice Department leadership was “trying to normalize the idea that President Trump has power that he doesn’t have — that his preferences, his wishes, and his frankly fascist agenda are something he can impose on local officials” to imitation, even if he has no legal authority to induce them to do so.”

“There are public officials across the country who rightly fear that his actions on immigration are not only immoral, but may also veer into illegal areas,” Krasner said. The prosecutor declined to specify what illegal actions Trump might want to impose on local officials, saying only: “With him [it could be] All.”

He also declined to say what kinds of requests from immigration authorities his office might ignore. But he said: “My office is a law enforcement agency. We will abide by the Constitution and uphold the law. We are not obligated to do things that are illegal… or are simply on Donald Trump’s fascist wish list where he has no power to compel our behavior.”

Krasner is in the final year of his second term and has never been shy about criticizing Trump. Last fall, he sued Elon Musk, one of the leading surrogates of the Trump campaign, and accused him of running an illegal lottery by handing out money to potential Trump voters (the judge rejected Krasner’s arguments).

Krasner also seemed to enjoy rhetorical sparring with Trump during his first term, and in 2021, as Krasner faced a tight re-election battle, he often sought to equate his Democratic primary opponent, Carlos Vega, with Trump.

It was unclear Wednesday how often Krasner’s office will have contact with ICE agents during Trump’s up-to-date term, even as the agency tries to conduct more immigration raids in the city.

Krasner’s office has several lawyers handling immigration cases – in some cases trying to protect immigrants accused of nonviolent crimes from deportation – which could attract the attention of Trump’s Justice Department. Bove said in his memo that federal officials will identify local laws or policies across the country that are “inconsistent with [Trump’s] immigration initiatives and, where appropriate, take legal action.”

Krasner said having attorneys dedicated to liaising with immigrants, especially those who may be witnesses or victims, has been helpful in many ways, including by encouraging people to show up in court. In any case, he said, he’s not sure what to make of the memo’s warnings about local politics.

“The truth is that almost everything they do seems to be a race between evil and incompetence,” Krasner stated. “It doesn’t even make sense.”

Get in Touch

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Related Articles

Latest Posts