Sessions: We want to avoid a ‘big brawl’ over immigration enforcement

Attorney General Jeff Sessions suggested Tuesday that state law enforcement agencies should be turning undocumented immigrants over to the federal government.  

“It’s just to me a shocking thing that we don’t have universal respect between law enforcement agencies where one has charges, the other turns over the offender so the next jurisdiction can carry out the just punishments,” he said at the winter meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General.

“We’re going to have to wrestle with that, and it’s going to be a tough challenge.”

{mosads}Earlier this month, the Trump administration released memos mapping out plans to aggressively enforce immigration laws, a push that could potentially result in millions of deportations. 

Sessions reaffirmed that plan Tuesday. 

“People who come here unlawfully who commit crimes are going to be out of here,” he said. 

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, told Sessions that President Trump’s actions are making it harder for police officers in California to investigate crimes. He said undocumented people in his state, who have not committed crimes, are afraid to come to the police as witnesses for fear they may also be apprehended. 

“I would urge you to look at the process from Washington, D.C. of how you could try to help us provide public safety to our people,” he said. 

Sessions said the federal government is having some disagreements with state and local governments when it comes to immigrants living in the country illegally. 

“I understand the argument that you made, and we’ve heard it before and there is a certain validity to it, but there are other countervailing arguments and principles that are at work,” Sessions told Becerra.

“I think we will do our best to be clear and firm and fair and responsible in the positions we take. We do not need to have a big brawl between our law enforcement agencies if we can avoid that.”