Maryland Attorney General Brown and Coalition Win Court Ban on Immigration Conditions for Public Safety Grants
Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown announced on November 5 that a multistate coalition of 22 attorneys general and Pennsylvania's governor secured a court victory stopping the federal government's imposition of unlawful immigration-enforcement conditions on congressionally authorized public safety grants, including grants for juvenile justice and for keeping law enforcement officers safe. Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island declared the administration's actions unlawful and permanently enjoined implementation or enforcement of the conditions.
The coalition had previously succeeded in getting the federal government to remove such conditions on over $1.3 billion of Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funds. The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program (Byrne JAG), for decades the leading federal source of criminal justice funding to state and local governments, was also affected by the conditions.
Brown said that by threatening to pull funding from police and violence prevention programs, the administration risked Marylanders' safety to pressure the state into doing Washington's immigration work, and that the ruling secures the resources that keep Maryland law enforcement and communities safe.
In Maryland, the Baltimore City Sheriff's Office Safe Pathways project uses Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program funds for firearm safe-storage education, community outreach, behavioral health referrals and violence prevention, serving more than 17,000 individuals through 97 outreach events and 890 firearm safety trainings. Attorneys general of California, New York, Illinois and other states, as well as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, joined the lawsuit.
(Source: Maryland Attorney General)
Source: Maryland Attorney General
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：马里兰州议会大厦（Annapolis）。CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Maryland State House in Annapolis. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
