Attorney General Jeff Sessions in an interview broadcast late Wednesday defended the Trump administration’s decision to sue California over the it’s so-called sanctuary laws, saying that it is time the federal government fought back against the state’s defiance of immigration laws.
“Somebody needs to stand up and say no, you’ve gone too far, you cannot do this, this is not reasonable,” Sessions said on “Fox News @ Night.”
“It’s radical, really.”
The Trump administration took one of its most aggressive steps against sanctuary laws to date on Tuesday when it filed a lawsuit seeking to block three California laws that the Justice Department says make it nearly impossible for federal immigration officials to do their jobs.
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Sessions in a news conference on Wednesday accused the state of blatantly defying the federal government, and asserted Washington’s authority to determine the nation’s immigration policy.
“There is no nullification. There is no secession,” Sessions said during a speech in Sacramento. “Federal law is the supreme law of the land.”
Sessions told Fox News that the Trump administration did not expect states to do the federal government’s bidding, but said that California and other states and municipalities with sanctuary laws are obstructing the work of immigration officials.
“We just cannot allow them to obstruct or block,” he said.