The Justice Department threatened to withhold as much as $4.1 billion in federal grants from self-proclaimed “sanctuary cities” on Monday, in a move that could impact the city of Syracuse.

The announcement was made at the White House when Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave a surprise address during the press corps daily briefing.

“DUIs, assaults, burglaries, drug crimes, gang crimes, rapes, crimes against children and murders,” he said, according to NPR. “Countless Americans would be alive today — and countless loved ones would not be grieving today — if the policies of these sanctuary jurisdictions were ended.”

The Justice Department defines a sanctuary city as a state or city that refuses immigrant agents’ requests to detain immigrants who entered the country illegally. President Donald Trump has promised to “end” sanctuary cities and signed an executive order in late January threatening sanctuary cities with the funding block. Sessions’ announcement Monday confirms the Justice Department will follow through with enforcement of the executive order.

The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has identified 118 sanctuary cities in the country. That number includes Syracuse.

Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner has repeatedly declared Syracuse a sanctuary city and explained her commitment to that definition in her State of the City address earlier this year.

In a statement posted on Facebook Monday after Sessions’ announcement, Miner said the city “is resolute” in its commitment to remaining a sanctuary city.

“The Justice Department’s leadership has once again shown blind allegiance to ideology rather than a sound understanding of public policy,” she said in the statement. The mayor added that the city will continue to monitor the details of the executive order to understand its full impact.

Miner has frequently been outspoken against Trump’s immigrant policies, notably when she joined a rally at the Syracuse Hancock International airport in January, protesting alongside hundreds of local residents after Trump signed his first executive order banning immigration from several Muslim majority countries and suspending the U.S.’s refugee program.

In the statement Monday, Miner said cities like Syracuse are sanctuary cities because it is “in keeping with our history of welcoming immigrants and refugees.” In Onondaga County last year, 1,466 refugees were resettled, with about 250 Syrian refugees being resettled in the Syracuse area, according to Syracuse.com.

State and local jurisdictions will have to certify they are complying with immigration laws to receive federal funding, the attorney general said during the briefing Monday, according to NPR. The Justice Department will also attempt to “claw back” funding already given to sanctuary cities, according to The Washington Post.

Syracuse relies heavily on federal funding and grants — including federal Community Development Block Grants, which in Trump’s proposed 2018 budget would be phased out — for a variety of different programs, initiatives and services. For example, with CDBG funding alone, the city has received $54 million in funds over the last 10 years, according to Syracuse.com. Money from the Syracuse’s latest CDBG award has contributed funding to organizations like the InterFaith Works of Central New York, per Syracuse.com, to help resettled refugees in the area.

“This divisive decision is against our history as cities and as a nation,” Miner said in the statement. “We are the nation … where thousands of New Americans are breathing life into Syracuse’s neighborhoods and contribute mightily to our local economy. This is not who we are and this is not who we should be.”

Published on March 27, 2017 at 10:11 pm

Contact Sam: sfogozal@syr.edu | @SamOgozalek