The Department of Justice recently sent a letter to New York City threatening to take away grant money if they fail to enforce the federal immigration regulations. They are forcing nine cities to prove they are complying with the immigration law by June 30th. It picks up on Senator Jeff Sessions' statement to crack down on sanctuary communities, but instead of simply speaking on the topic, they are using more forceful action. According to Pix 11, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has warned that the administration will punish communities that refuse to cooperate with efforts to find and deport immigrants in the country illegally.

If you don't know what a sanctuary city is, CNN defines it as such: "The term 'sanctuary city' is a broad term applied to jurisdictions that have policies in place designed to limit cooperation with or involvement in federal immigration enforcement actions. Cities, counties and some states have a range of informal policies as well as actual laws that qualify as 'sanctuary' positions." Essentially, these sanctuary cities are places where immigrants don't have to worry about being arrested or deported solely on their immigration status.

In the letter to New York City, the Department of Justice states that their recent gang murders are predictable because they're "soft on crime." It seems that they're blaming any sort of crime, such as gang murders, on immigrants or people who may be here illegally. By putting two completely different points like this together, in a letter that is speaking on the lack of enforcement towards the immigration law, it makes it seem as though immigrants or people here illegally are to blame.

What the Trump administration fails to understand is that New York City is a city of immigrants and everyone's situation is different. Threatening everyone as a whole will not help the situation, but quite possibly make it worse. It will force people who are not legal to commit crimes as a way to make money and it will cause people to lose trust in the police department.