Daley to Ignore Immigration Laws

Ace of Trump points us to a story from the Chicago Chronicle. Sun Times story here.

The Chicago City council has passed an ordinance that turns a 1989 Daley executive order into law. The executive order says:

No agent or agency shall request information about or otherwise investigate or assist in the investigation of citizenship or residency status of any person unless such an inquiry or investigation is required by statute, ordinance, federal regulation or court decision.

The Sun Times adds,

It further orders that city services, benefits and opportunities should not be “conditioned” on “matters related to citizenship or residency status” unless otherwise required by law.

The ordinance passed Wednesday “would say, ‘Look, when we provide city services, be it by police or any other city agency, our focus is not immigration status,'” said Ricardo Meza, regional counsel for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, who testified in support of the law.

So the “sanctuary city” designation is now law, not just an executive order.

The last two paragraphs of the story read:

Ald. Billy Ocasio (26th), chairman of the City Council’s Human Relations Committee, noted that Wednesday’s vote could set the stage for a court challenge if the final federal law is close to the tough immigration bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.). He said Sensenbrenner wants to supersede home rule.

“It gives us leverage if they pass the Sensenbrenner bill. … We need to send a clear message that we are not going to do this,” Ocasio said.

I don’t know if this gives you any leverage Mr. Ocasio – If you refuse to comply the feds can take all your federal funding away from you. Chicago gets a lot of federal funding…