During Border Tour: AG Sessions Advises Cities Dump Sanctuary Policies

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CA – UPDATE: FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 4:10 p.m.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in a visit to San Diego, today urged cities and other government jurisdictions with immigration sanctuary policies to reconsider and work with federal law enforcement to identify criminals who should be deported.

The Justice Department sent letters to the state of California, Cook County, Illinois, and the cities of Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, Milwaukee, New Orleans, New York and Philadelphia that demand they provide legal justification for non-cooperation by June 30 or risk the loss of federal funding.

"Sanctuary jurisdictions put criminals back on the streets," Sessions said in a news conference, in which he detailed the dangers posed by criminal street gangs.

"They help these gangs to refill their ranks, and puts innocent life -- including the lives of countless law-abiding immigrants -- in danger by refusing to share vital information with federal law enforcement," Sessions said.

The attorney general observed border and immigration detention operations along with Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin.

Kelly reiterated that the federal government will strengthen enforcement along the border.

"We will continue to expand our approach to deterring illegal migration," Kelly said. "That includes constructing a physical barrier, supporting it with technology and patrolling it with a dedicated and professional workforce."

"It also includes our approach of prosecuting anyone who pays traffickers to smuggle people into the country -- especially those who smuggle in children, including family members here," he said. "Human smuggling across our border puts individuals -- especially children -- at great risk of assault, abuse and even death at the hands of smuggler and coyotes."

He said he and Sessions wanted nothing more than to "put human smugglers out of business" and "end the flow of illegal migration."

The tour of the border area began Thursday in El Paso, where community leaders objected to Sessions' remarks in which he called the border a "beachhead," which implies hostile territory, and as "ground zero" against cartels and transnational gangs, the El Paso Times reported.

By using language that connotes a war almost, by calling it a beachhead, by saying this is ground zero, this language causes incredible harm to our community. That language and that attitude and that rhetoric is un- American," El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar said as reported by the newspaper.

Immigrant rights advocates rallied in San Ysidro, where they wrote messages on chalkboards and created sidewalk art.

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, D-San Diego, who represents the area, said in a statement that Sessions "saw firsthand that our community is determined to resist the hateful, bigoted and unjust policies his Justice Department is trying to impose on us."

"His warped and delusional views on immigration just don't match the reality that our community is filled with hard-working, law-abiding patriots who reject this administration's divisive agenda," Gonzalez Fletcher said.

The assemblywoman has authored legislation that would make the state divest from companies that assist in building a wall along the border.

At the news conference, Sessions rejected any notion of a racial intent to stronger immigration enforcement.

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FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 7:18 a.m.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly are scheduled to visit San Diego today to observe federal operations at the border with Mexico.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, they and Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, plan to watch border and immigration detention operations.

Kelly visited San Diego in February, when the retired Marine Corps general met with area law enforcement leaders.

The San Diego visit is part of a tour of the southwestern border area that began Thursday in El Paso.

El Paso community leaders objected to comments Sessions made during the visit in which he referred to the border as a "beachhead," which implies hostile territory, and as "ground zero" against cartels and transnational gangs, the El Paso Times reported.

By using language that connotes a war almost, by calling it a beachhead, by saying this is ground zero, this language causes incredible harm to our community. That language and that attitude and that rhetoric is un- American," El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar said as reported by the El Paso Times.

Sessions and Kelly were also met with protests in El Paso, and immigrant- rights advocates are planning a rally ahead of their appearance in San Diego.

Border residents, local leaders and religious officials plan to hold up chalkboards with suggestions on what border communities need instead of a wall during a mid-morning rally in San Ysidro. They contend that the high-ranking government officials have refused to meet with border residents and have "declared war on our communities," organizers said in a statement.

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--City News Service/Image via CBP‏Verified account @CustomsBorder