(Headline USA) The Justice Department released a memo to its entire workforce directing federal prosecutors to investigate any state or local officials who stand in the way of beefed-up enforcement of immigration laws under the Trump administration.
The memo, which was written by acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove and obtained by the Associated Press on Wednesday, also says the department will return to the principle of charging defendants with the most serious crime it can prove, a staple position of Republican-led departments meant to remove a prosecutor’s discretion to charge a lower-level offense.
Selective prosecutions contributed to the perception that the Biden administration was weaponizing the justice system against Trump and his political allies by throwing the book at them while allowing Democrat officials and their constituencies to skate on equivalent—or even more egregious—offenses.
Much of Bove’s memo was centered on immigration enforcement. The former Trump attorney wrote that prosecutors shall “take all steps necessary to protect the public and secure the American border by removing illegal aliens from the country and prosecuting illegal aliens for crimes” committed in U.S. jurisdiction.
The memo also suggested state and local officials who stood in the way of federal immigration enforcement might themselves come under scrutiny. It directed prosecutors to investigate any episodes in which state and local officials obstructed or impeded federal functions.
“Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands and requests,” the memo said. “The U.S. Attorney’s Offices and litigating components of the Department of Justice shall investigate incidents involving any such misconduct for potential prosecution.”
It comes as several blue-state mayors and governors—including Denver’s Mike Johnston—have prominently declared that they would engage in civil disobedience against the federal government, resuming the so-called sanctuary-city practices that they deployed to safeguard illegals during the first Trump presidency.
The three-page memo signaled an immediate and sharp turnabout in priorities from President Joe Biden’s Democrat administration, during which the vast majority of DOJ resources were spent prosecuting Trump and his “MAGA” supporters for offenses including the Jan. 6, 2021, uprising a the U.S. Capitol. Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 of the J6 political dissidents earlier this week and commuted the sentences of several others.
Bove, by contrast, told prosecutors in no uncertain terms that they would be on the front lines of an administration-wide effort to crack down on illegal immigration and border crime, and that they were expected to carry out the Trump administration’s policy vision with respect to violent crimes, the threat of transnational gangs and drug trafficking.
“Indeed, it is the responsibility of the Justice Department to defend the Constitution, and accordingly, to lawfully execute the policies that the American people elected President Trump to implement,” Bove wrote in the memo obtained by the AP.
“The Justice Department’s responsibility, proudly shouldered by each of its employees, includes aggressive enforcement of laws enacted by Congress, as well as vigorous defense of the President’s actions on behalf of the United States against legal challenges,” Bove added. “The Department’s personnel must come together in the offices that taxpayers have funded to do this important work.”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
