Gov. Dan McKee has one day left to answer U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s demands that Rhode Island eliminate all policies that stand in the way of the Trump administration’s immigration agenda or else potentially lose federal funding because of its status as a “sanctuary jurisdiction.”
“You are hereby notified that your jurisdiction has been identified as one that engages in sanctuary policies and practices that thwart federal immigration enforcement to the detriment of the interests of the United States,” Bondi wrote in an Aug. 13 letter to the governor. “This ends now.”
The letter to McKee, first reported by WPRI-12 Friday, was sent a little over a week after the U.S. Department of Justice published a list identifying 19 cities, four counties and 12 states as engaging in “sanctuary policies and practices.”
Bondi’s letter gives McKee until Tuesday to issue a response that confirms its “commitment to complying with federal law,” but the governor has no plans to do so.
“This generic, non-specific form letter lacks any meaningful detail and does not merit a response,” McKee said in a statement.
McKee’s decision to stand firm against the Trump administration’s immigration policy was lauded by the head of the state’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
“The DOJ letter is really just a ham-handed attempt to intimidate jurisdictions that are refusing to march in step with the Trump administration’s really cruel deportation machine,” Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU of Rhode Island, said in an interview Monday.
That list was part of an executive order issued by President Donald Trump April 28 mandating federal officials identify and publicly highlight jurisdictions that “refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.”
Rhode Island, as well as the cities of Providence and Central Falls, was included on another, much longer sanctuary jurisdiction list shared by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in May. It was later taken down after some counties and the National Sheriffs’ Association disagreed with their inclusion.
Providence and Central Falls were not included on the DOJ’s new list. A department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why the two municipalities were not included.
According to the Justice Department’s letter, Rhode Island’s designation as a “sanctuary jurisdiction” is based on a review of the state’s laws, policies, and practices. The department’s website further outlines the characteristics of this designation, including: public declarations of sanctuary status; local laws or rules limiting cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); and restrictions on information about “immigration status of detainees with federal authorities,” among others.
Rhode Island Current reached out to the DOJ for specific details and received a referral back to the department’s website.
Brown suggested limits on ICE detainers, which Rhode Island only allows for no more than 48 hours under a 2014 federal court order, as one possible reason.
“That order found that acting otherwise would violate the Constitution,” Brown said. “They’re complaining that Rhode Island is complying with the Fourth Amendment.”
But Bondi wrote that sanctuary jurisdictions give “aliens cover to perpetrate crimes in our communities and evade the immigration consequences that federal law requires.” She added that officials who continue to obstruct the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts may be subject to criminal charges.
It’s a challenge, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, who was copied on the Aug. 13 letter, welcomed.
“The only way to deal with a bully is to let them know that they’re not going to intimidate you,” Neronha said in a statement. “If the Trump Administration takes issue with this, then the doors of federal court are open to them. Until that point, my focus is elsewhere.”
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
