CARSON CITY — Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of a federal executive order penalizing sanctuary cities.
Laxalt on Friday joined a 10-state coalition of attorneys general in filing the brief in the federal District Court of San Francisco. The brief urges the court to dismiss a California-based challenge to the federal government’s January executive order pertaining to sanctuary cities.
The case is an opportunity to remedy the threat that California’s “sanctuary cities” pose to Nevada safety, Laxalt’s office said.
“Sanctuary cities in California endanger Nevadans, especially given their close proximity to us,” Laxalt said. “In some cases these cities refuse federal requests to temporarily detain illegal aliens with violent criminal histories and instead release these felons into communities that — under federal law — they have no right to be in.
“Nevada’s Legislature, sheriffs and municipalities have wisely rejected such nonsensical policies, but Nevadans should not be the victims of such policies in other states,” he said. “Opposition to this extreme form of a ‘sanctuary city’ is pro-immigrant and pro-safety, as safety is a leading concern of our immigrant communities.”
On Jan. 25, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to better enforce U.S. immigration laws by making local jurisdictions that “willfully refuse” to comply with federal immigration laws ineligible for federal grants, except as necessary for law enforcement.
In February, the California cities of San Francisco and Richmond and the county of Santa Clara brought a pre-enforcement challenge to the executive order. In April, the court preliminarily blocked the federal order from taking effect.
Nevada supports the federal government’s motion to dissolve the injunction and allow federal immigration law to be enforced.
Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Follow @seanw801 on Twitter.