PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday told a roomful of federal prosecutors and law enforcement officials that cities like Philadelphia are “giving sanctuary” to criminals and asked them to “reconsider the harm they are doing to their residents.”
Sessions said law enforcement willing to cooperate in so-called sanctuary cities like Philadelphia could be shackled by local policies.
He said he hopes to work with cities to address what he called rising rates of violent crime.
Sessions also condemned immigrants living in the country illegally who commit crime. He asked what right they have to avoid being deported.
Sessions’ trip comes on the heels of a New York Times interview published this week in which Trump expressed frustration with Sessions for recusing himself from the FBI probe into Russian election tampering.
