Sanctuary City D.C. Allots Funds to Fight Deportation


Last November, a scared and angry group of immigrants confronted Mayor Muriel Bowser. “We feel unsafe,” they declared. They demanded she protect them from possible deportation should the just-nominated Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump become president. They acknowledged they were “undocumented” — living in the country illegally — a misdemeanor offense. But they also demanded protection for those immigrants facing mandatory deportation: convicted felons.   

Bowser responded immediately. “We are a sanctuary city and our policies are clear,” she wrote in an official statement. “Every resident of Washington, D.C., should continue to go about [their] day-to-day lives knowing that the government of Washington, D.C., is here to serve residents and to keep them safe.” As a sanctuary city, D.C. police and law enforcement officers were ordered not to cooperate with federal immigration officials to deport any of the District’s estimated 25,000 illegal immigrants, even those facing federal deportation orders as a result of criminal convictions.

Advocates said it wasn’t enough. Last week, 10 days before the inauguration of President Trump, Bowser announced she was “doubling down” on the District’s status as a sanctuary city. She would establish a $500,000 special fund to help pay for legal aid for any immigrant facing deportation by the Trump administration. 

The money is offered in grants by the D.C. Office of Latino Affairs to defense lawyers and to nonprofit organizations to help illegal immigrants apply for asylum. The grants, which became available Jan. 23, will also help those with green cards who are facing deportation — almost always after being convicted of and serving time for a serious felony — to obtain U.S. citizenship instead.
Jeh Johnson’s Secure Location Is Sold
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson has sold his home at 27th & O Streets NW, according to neighborhood sources. The house sold after just three days on the market and just one day after Johnson’s term of office ended, upon the inauguration of President Donald Trump. The buyer is unknown.

Johnson, 59, is returning to the 900-plus-lawyer, New York-based firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where he became the first African American partner in 1994. He will work as a litigator in New York and Washington, the American Lawyer reported, moving into the office once used by Ted Sorensen, White House counsel in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Before taking the top spot at the Department of Homeland Security in 2013, Johnson was general counsel to the Department of Defense.
The move will also be a return to his old home in Montclair, New Jersey, the large basement of which is filled with Johnson’s beloved model railroad. He (and his 24/7 Secret Service entourage) will be missed, neighbors affirm.

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