Republican Senators: Will Joe Biden Give Angel Families the Same Grants He Gives Sanctuary Cities?

A group of Senate Republicans is asking if President Joe Biden’s administration will extend the same federal grants to Angel Families and the victims of illegal alien crime that are being rewarded to sanctuary jurisdictions shielding illegal aliens from arrest and deportation.

In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the 11 Senate Republicans said they want answers on the Biden administration’s decision to restart federal grants to sanctuary jurisdictions despite their flouting federal immigration law.

The Senators who signed the letter include Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Steve Daines (R-MT), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Thom Tillis (R-NC), James Inhofe (R-OK), James Lankford (R-OK), Mike Braun (R-IN), and Kevin Cramer (R-ND).

“We are troubled by your decision to reverse these policies and place the public safety and lives of hard working Americans at risk,” the Senators write:

[W]e demand, as a matter of Congressional oversight, that you immediately release any guidance memos related to the decision to reinstate funding for sanctuary cities and jurisdictions. This information should be made readily available to Congress and to the American people in order to evaluate this unfortunate policy change. [Emphasis added]

The Senate Republicans issued a series of questions to Garland, asking him if the Department of Justice (DOJ) would be providing Angel Families and the victims of illegal alien crime with the same kind of grants that they plan to give sanctuary jurisdictions.

“What prompted your decision to reverse DOJ policy which withheld certain grant funds for sanctuary jurisdictions? Was this a decision by DOJ, or was this a directive from the White House?” the Senators ask.

“Is DOJ planning to increase grants to victims of crimes by dangerous criminal immigrants, specifically for those harmed as the result of sanctuary city policies? If not, please explain your reasoning,” they continue.

Read the full letter here:

DOJ Sanctuary City Grant Fu… by John Binder

In 2017, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions implemented a policy that made sanctuary jurisdictions ineligible for local law enforcement grants under the DOJ’s Byrne JAG program.

The Byrne JAG program provides millions every year in federal grant money to local law enforcement agencies, but Sessions warned sanctuary jurisdictions in 2017 that they would not be able to receive their annual grant funding if they continued shielding criminal illegal aliens from federal immigration law.

The initiative, like many of Trump’s policies, ended up in federal court. In July 2019, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the DOJ can withhold grants to sanctuary jurisdictions. Then, in February 2020, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals made a similar ruling, in favor of the policy.

The policy had helped siphon more than $30 million in taxpayer-funded grants from sanctuary jurisdictions. In April, the Biden administration announced that it would restart the grants.

Legislation by Tillis, known as the Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities Act, would allow Angel Families and the victims of illegal alien crime to sue sanctuary jurisdictions in cases where the suspect was shielded from arrest and deportation.

Angel Families continue to not have a route to litigation against sanctuary jurisdictions in the wake of their loved ones’ deaths. On the other hand, illegal aliens have been allowed unlimited resources to sue states, counties, and the federal government.

Every year, about 2,000 Americans are killed by illegal aliens, according to an analysis by Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL). Of the roughly 150,000 federal inmates in Bureau of Prisons custody, nearly 48,000 are illegal aliens, indicating that more than 25 percent of the federal prison population came to the U.S. illegally.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here. 

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