The Justice Department is expected to file a constitutional challenge to California’s so-called “sanctuary” laws on Tuesday night, according to senior department officials.
The lawsuit represents an aggressive new push by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to go after so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions, which have earned the immigration hardliner’s ire for adopting laws aimed at protecting undocumented immigrants and making it harder for federal immigration agents to find and deport them.
The lawsuit is expected to be filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento, and name the state and its Democratic governor and attorney general as defendants, according to Justice Department officials. Sessions is traveling on Wednesday to Sacramento to announce the lawsuit, a speech publicly billed as a “major sanctuary jurisdiction announcement.”
The lawsuit will accuse the state of violating the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution, according to DOJ officials. The Supremacy Clause, broadly speaking, dictates that when state law conflicts with federal law, federal law prevails. The Justice Department will argue that the California laws at issue conflict with federal immigration laws and frustrate Congress’ goals in adopting them.
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