Biden's DOJ Drops ICE-Related Legal Battle With Central Falls

CENTRAL FALLS, RI — Providence and Central Falls have prevailed in a long-running lawsuit concerning federal policing grants and their sanctuary city status.

Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza and Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera announced Friday that the U.S. Dept. of Justice has dropped its appeal of a legal battle with roots in the Trump administration.

The two cities in 2018 sued then-attorney general Jeff Sessions, saying he had no right to force local governments to act as federal immigration enforcers as a condition of receiving a Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant. Neither city lets local police assist with federal immigration enforcement, and both cities received the grants.

Live in Central Falls? Click here to subscribe to our free breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox and mobile devices. You can also download our free Patch mobile app on Android or iPhone.

Under Sessions, local recipients of the grant had to give U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents access to correctional facilities, and to notify them when inmates were released. In fiscal 2017, Central Falls was awarded a grant in the amount of $28,677 and used the funding for police technology upgrades.

Both cities said the conditional quid-pro-quo was unconstitutional.

"I am inspired that our Federal Courts ordered that Central Falls can continue to receive this important funding without the requirement that our police officers become agents of a broken, federal immigration system,” said Rivera in a media release.

Elorza said the Trump administration was "maliciously targeting" local law enforcement and undermining community policing. He said with Garland's decision, the federal courts “served as a critical firewall against these unconstitutional directives.”

"We stood proudly in court and stated that Providence is a welcoming city, that we will stand by our values, and we will fight the federal government's illegal and unconstitutional overreaching,” Elorza said. “And we won!"

Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston ruled in favor of the two Rhode Island cities, saying the DOJ had no right "to impose by brute force" such conditions upon grant recipients. The March 30 decision to not fight that ruling was made by Attorney General Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden's pick to lead the DOJ.

Central Falls is home to the private, for-profit Wyatt Detention Center. Last month two Central Falls lawmakers — Sen. Jonathan Acosta and Rep. Joshua Giraldo — filed state legislation that would shut it down. One of the bills would prohibit contracts between for-profit prison facilities and ICE.