Berkeley is one of 18 sanctuary cities singled out by feds
The list also included the county of San Francisco and the state of California, along with a dozen other states.
The city of Berkeley landed on a shortlist of "sanctuary jurisdictions" published Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The DOJ described the localities as "having policies, laws, or regulations that impede enforcement of federal immigration laws."
Berkeley was one of 18 cities on the list, which included San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland, Oregon.
The list also included the county of San Francisco and the state of California, along with a dozen other states and several counties.
In January, the Berkeley City Council publicly reaffirmed Berkeley's status as a sanctuary city and pledged to create a task force made up of officials as well as "immigration and civil rights organizations, faith leaders, legal experts, school and university officials, and community activists to continually assess threats to Berkeley’s immigrant communities and participate in the process of codifying Berkeley’s Sanctuary protections through a city ordinance."
"Sanctuary is fundamentally about public safety: the need for everyone in the community to feel safe," Berkeley officials wrote. "When all community members, documented or undocumented, are able to attend school and after-school programs, hospitals and health centers, and places of worship without the threat of deportation, we promote a more educated, healthy, and thriving community. Sanctuary policies strengthen all our lives."
Berkeley first identified itself as a "City of Refuge" in 1971 and has repeatedly emphasized its stance toward undocumented community members, including through a Sanctuary City Task Force in 2017.
Berkeley was among the smallest cities on Tuesday's list, followed only by Hoboken, New Jersey, and East Lansing, Michigan.
The list was created in response to an April 28 executive order from President Donald Trump entitled, "Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens."
In its announcement Tuesday, the DOJ said it had already filed "several lawsuits against sanctuary jurisdictions seeking to compel compliance with federal law" — and would continue to work "to eradicate these harmful policies around the country."
According to the statement, the city of Louisville, Kentucky, revoked its sanctuary policies "following a letter from the Justice Department threatening legal action."
It was unknown as of publication time whether the city of Berkeley had received a similar letter. (The Scanner has asked the city for comment.)
The press release also linked to a Fox news story about the DOJ's lawsuit against New York City, which was filed in late July.
On Tuesday, federal authorities warned that more jurisdictions may be added to the list as time goes by — and invited those that are on it to take action.
"The federal government will assist any jurisdiction that desires to be taken off this list to identify and eliminate their sanctuary policies, so they no longer stand in opposition to federal immigration enforcement," the statement reads.
