Justice Department to withhold grants from sanctuary cities

[Dereich]

If the amount of money being withheld is significant enough to force cities to comply this will have to be overturned under the Dole test. To me this looks like the government setting up another case its likely to lose.

[Dereich]

Asking cities to comply with laws on the books is so radical. 

Well yes, the Federal government forcing states to spend local money and resources enforcing a fiat from Washington IS radical. If we believe in any individual state sovereignty at all, allowing the Federal government to co-opt officials hired and directed by the states and forcing them to enforce some other authority's laws is the end of that sovereignty. I assume there would be more of an outcry if the Feds decided to order local police departments in Colorado to enforce Federal drug law, but the issue is exactly the same.

[Dereich]

Asking cities to comply with laws on the books is so radical. 

Well yes, the Federal government forcing states to spend local money and resources enforcing a fiat from Washington IS radical. If we believe in any individual state sovereignty at all, allowing the Federal government to co-opt officials hired and directed by the states and forcing them to enforce some other authority's laws is the end of that sovereignty. I assume there would be more of an outcry if the Feds decided to order local police departments in Colorado to enforce Federal drug law, but the issue is exactly the same.

States' rights, the last refuge of someone who can't get their policies enacted on a national level.

Not really? State sovereignty has allowed plenty of policies to be tested and improved before the political will to implement them existed on the national level. Women's suffrage, worker's rights, and abolitionism all started as state level policies and grew from there. I'm not sure if its what you specifically are doing, but attacking state's rights because they interferes with one immediate federal policy is a pretty short-sighted way of thinking. I much prefer the potential diversity of political action that the federal system allows.

[Dereich]

I typically hate the term 'common sense policy' but I don't think it has ever made sense for cities to blatantly break federal law and expect to receive funding regardless. Good move by the administration. Sanctuary cities are wrong.

It's not an issue of "breaking the law"; the federal government doesn't have the authority to make the local administrations act. Its an issue of cooperation: ICE conducts its Federal immigration duties separately and states/cities choose to spend their time and money helping ICE or not. Sanctuary cities can't stop the federal government from acting within their limits, but they can choose the extent of cooperation they want their own agencies to have with federal authorities.

And the popularity of the move is kind of beside the point; if its unconstitutional it doesn't matter how popular it is, the courts are going to strike it down.