Justice Department budget plan seeks to force 'sanctuary cities' to enforce immigration laws

The Justice Department is pushing as a part of its budget proposal to change federal law so that local jurisdictions can be forced to detain suspected illegal immigrants upon request.

The move would give the administration far more leeway to make good on its promise to crack down on "sanctuary cities" - although it would surely meet resistance from some local law enforcement agencies that do not want their officers used to enforce immigration law.

"Having states and local jurisdictions enforce federal immigration law terrorizes immigrant communities and makes the whole community less, not more, safe, as police chiefs around the country recognize," said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's national Immigrants' Rights Project.

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