President Trump started picking on Chicago during his campaign, took it with him to the White House and after delivering a broadside against the city for its sanctuary city policies yesterday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is taking up Chicago bashing on his own, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. “For the sake of their city, Chicago’s leaders need to recommit to policies that punish criminals instead of protecting them,” Sessions said in Miami, connecting — without evidence — the city’s high crime rate to illegal immigration. Sessions singled out Chicago and its struggle with crime in a speech about the administration’s push against sanctuary cities, of which Chicago is one.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel sued Sessions last week to bar him from carrying out his threat to cut federal crime-fighting funds from sanctuary cities. “Chicago will continue to stand up proudly as a welcoming city, and we will not cave to the Trump administration’s pressure because they are wrong morally, wrong factually and wrong legally,” Emanuel said yesterday. Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said, “Undocumented immigrants are not driving violence in Chicago and that’s why I want our officers focused on community policing and not trying to be the immigration police.”