Attorney General Sessions said the policy "is entirely consistent" with US DOJ's Office of Justice Programs guidance issued in July 2016 -- during the Obama administration under Attorney General Loretta Lynch -- requiring state and local jurisdictions to comply and certify compliance with Section 1373 in order to be eligible for OJP grants, and "also made clear that failure to remedy violations could result in withholding of grants, termination of grants, and disbarment or ineligibility for future grants."

Attorney General Sessions added the U.S. Dept. of Justice will "take all lawful steps to claw-back any funds awarded to a jurisdiction that willfully violates Section 1373."

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What's 8 U.S.C. 1373? It's a federal law (passed by Congress) that states in pertinent part:

(a) In general

Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal, State, or local law, a Federal, State, or local government entity or official may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, the Immigration and Naturalization Service information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.

(b) Additional authority of government entities Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal, State, or local law, no person or agency may prohibit, or in any way restrict, a Federal, State, or local government entity from doing any of the following with respect to information regarding the immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual:
(1) Sending such information to, or requesting or receiving such information from, the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
(2) Maintaining such information.
(3) Exchanging such information with any other Federal, State, or local government entity...

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Below is Attorney General Sessions' March 27 statement text in full:

[US DOJ AG Sessions statement text] The Department of Justice has a duty to enforce our nation's laws, including our immigration laws. Those laws require us to promptly remove aliens when they are convicted of certain crimes.

The vast majority of the American people support this common-sense requirement. According to one recent poll, 80 percent of Americans believe that cities that arrest illegal immigrants for crimes should be required to turn them over to immigration authorities.

Unfortunately, some states and cities have adopted policies designed to frustrate the enforcement of our immigration laws. This includes refusing to detain known felons under federal detainer requests, or otherwise failing to comply with these laws. For example, the Department of Homeland Security recently issued a report showing that in a single week, there were more than 200 instances of jurisdictions refusing to honor Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer requests with respect to individuals charged or convicted of a serious crime. The charges and convictions against these aliens include drug trafficking, hit and run, rape, sex offenses against a child and even murder.

Such policies cannot continue. They make our nation less safe by putting dangerous criminals back on our streets.

We all remember the tragic case of Kate Steinle, the 32-year-old woman who was shot and killed two years ago in San Francisco as she walked along a pier with her father. The shooter, Francisco Sanchez, was an illegal immigrant who had already been deported five times and had seven felony convictions.

Just eleven weeks before the shooting, San Francisco had released Sanchez from its custody, even though ICE had filed a detainer requesting that he be kept in custody until immigration authorities could pick him up for removal. Even worse, Sanchez admitted that the only reason he came to San Francisco was because of its sanctuary policies.

A similar story unfolded just last week, when Ever Valles, an illegal immigrant and Mexican national, was charged with murder and robbery of a man at a light rail station. Valles was released from a Denver jail in late December, despite the fact that ICE had lodged a detainer for his removal.

The American people are justifiably angry. They know that when cities and states refuse to help enforce immigration laws, our nation is less safe. Failure to deport aliens who are convicted for criminal offenses puts whole communities at risk -- especially immigrant communities in the very sanctuary jurisdictions that seek to protect the perpetrators.

DUIs, assaults, burglaries, drug crimes, gang crimes, rapes, crimes against children and murders. Countless Americans would be alive today -- and countless loved ones would not be grieving today -- if the policies of these sanctuary jurisdictions were ended.

Not only do these policies endanger the lives of every American; just last May, the Department of Justice Inspector General found that these policies also violate federal law.

The President has rightly said that this disregard for the law must end. In his executive order, he stated that it is the policy of the executive branch to ensure that states and cities comply with all federal laws, including our immigration laws.

The order also states that "the Attorney General and the Secretary [of Homeland Security]...shall ensure that jurisdictions that willfully refuse to comply" with the law "are not eligible to receive Federal grants, except as deemed necessary for law enforcement purposes by the Attorney General or the Secretary."

Today I am urging all states and local jurisdictions to comply with all federal laws, including 8 U.S.C. Section 1373. Moreover, the Department of Justice will require jurisdictions seeking or applying for Department grants to certify compliance with Section 1373 as a condition for receiving these awards.

This policy is entirely consistent with the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs (OJP) guidance issued last July under the previous administration. This guidance requires state and local jurisdictions to comply and certify compliance with Section 1373 in order to be eligible for OJP grants. It also made clear that failure to remedy violations could result in withholding of grants, termination of grants, and disbarment or ineligibility for future grants.

The Department of Justice will also take all lawful steps to claw-back any funds awarded to a jurisdiction that willfully violates Section 1373.

In the current fiscal year, department's OJP and Community Oriented Policing Services anticipate awarding more than $4.1 billion dollars in grants.

I urge our nation's states and cities to consider carefully the harm they are doing to their citizens by refusing to enforce our immigration laws, and to re-think these policies. Such policies make their cities and states less safe, and put them at risk of losing valuable federal dollars.

The American people want and deserve a lawful immigration system that keeps us safe and serves our national interest. This expectation is reasonable, and our government has a duty to meet it. And we will meet it.

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Santa Clara County, adn the City/County of San Francisco, have filed lawsuits challenging President Trump's January Executive Order regarding "sanctuary cities" that refuse to help federal authorities enforce federal immigration laws; last week, CA Attorney Gen'l Xavier Becerra filed a "friend of the court" brief, putting the state of CA on record as supporting the challenge to the Trump administration policy.

One week before the Nov. 2016 election which made Donald Trump President-Elect, the LB City Council voted to authorize receipt of U.S. DOJ OJP grants (a fraction of multiple federal taxpayer grants sought and obtained by City Hall on various subjects) totalling nearly a million dollars from the U.S. Dept. of Justice on public safety/crime related issues, one of which included $134,000 for LBUSD.

>On Nov. 1, 2016, the City Council approved receipt of $700,000 for a grant from the DOJ's Bureau of Justice Statistics National Crime Statistics Exchange Implmentation System to [agendizing memo text] "support the FBI's initiative to provide funding to enable agencies to transition to the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). LBPD currently uses a reporting system that does not have the capability to report NIBRS data. LBPD plans to engage in a multiphase transition in which it will evaluate its current RMS, determine whether to purchase a new RMS or enhance its existing system, select a new RMS (if applicable), and deploy the new or modified system in order to begin submitting NIBRS data. Under this grant award, a consultant will be funded to evaluate LBPD's current system and provide recommendations based on operational and data needs."

Also on November 1, 2016, the Council authorized receipt of $259,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention for the following:

[agendizing memo text] In May 2014, the City Council approved the adoption of the Safe Long Beach Violence Prevention Plan (Safe Long Beach). At the direction of President Obama, the Departments of Justice and Education launched the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention (Forum) to begin a national conversation concerning youth and gang violence and prevention, raise awareness, and elevate the issue to national significance. In November 2014, the City Council formally accepted the first Forum grant of $20,000 and its designation to reduce violence, improve school attendance, and encourage innovation at the local level. The City Council accepted the second Forum grant of $279,000 in November 2015. To further existing Forum efforts, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is again supporting localities presently implementing the Forum with funding to enhance efforts to adopt practices and implement models to achieve violence prevention objectives. To this end, OJJDP has awarded the City of Long Beach with one new grant: the FY 16 State and Community Development Award in the amount of $259,000.

The State and Community Development Award allows the City to begin expanding and enhancing the Safe Schools strategy under Safe Long Beach. This proposed enhancement will engage the Long Beach Unified School District, the City Prosecutor, residents, businesses, and the faith community in a strategic process to improve attendance and reduce truancy and subsequent delinquent behavior. As part of this partnership, the Long Beach Unified School District will receive a portion of the State and Community Development Award funds in the amount of $134,000.

About six weeks earlier on Sept. 20, 2016, the Council authorized city management receipt and expenditure of grant funding from the federal FY 16 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program Local Solicitation ($196,217) to be used [agendizing memo text] "to support a DNA Criminalist provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department assigned to work on Long Beach DNA cases, and to support a specially trained and selected Deputy Probation Officer assigned by the County of Los Angeles to provide enhanced probation services to the City of Long Beach."

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Long Beach hasn't formally declared itself a "sanctuary city" but does follow certain "sanctuary" type policies. On Jan. 25, 2017 the Long Beach Police Department released the following statement:

[LBPD statement per City of Long Beach] Enforcing immigration at the local level undermines the trust and cooperation with immigrant communities, which are essential elements of community oriented policing. Long Beach follows the California TRUST Act, and our current practice is not to hold individuals on immigration violations alone. The Long Beach Police Department supports measures to either continue incarceration or to deport violent and serious offenders who pose a threat to our community. We evaluate our policies and procedures as any new legislation is enacted, but it would be premature to speculate on any changes, at this time.

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Long Beach city policies are set by a majority of the LB City Council. Under LB's City Charter, LB's Mayor can recommend and suggest (and "tweet" his opinions) but has no independent executive authority to make policy. City management departments (including LBPD through its Chief of Police) carry out Council-directed policies.

On Feb. 7, 2017, seven of Long Beach's nine City Councilmembers voted to put Long Beach on record as supporting two advancing Sacramento bills (SB 31 and SB 54) that would effectively create certain statewide immigration sanctuary policies. SB 54 would forbid state and local law enforcement agencies, school police and security departments from investigating, interrogating, detaining, detecting, reporting or arresting persons for immigration enforcement purposes. SB 31 would forbid the state and localities from investigating, enforcing, or assisting in investigating or enforcing any federal program requiring registration of individuals on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or national or ethnic origin.

The Council vote was 7-0. Two Councilmembers, who had been visible earlier in the Council meeting (Dee Andrews and Stacy Mungo, the latter the Council's only registered Republican) vanished on the vote with Mungo returning after the agenda item for the remainder of the Council meeting.

Councilmembers have thus far declined to do what some local activists have sought: explicitly declare Long Beach a "sanctuary city" (committing to take certain actions in defiance of federal immigration authorities regardless of the outcome of the now-pending statewide legislation.) Instead, LB Councilmembers have stayed basically within policy parameters drawn by Sac'to's Dem legislative leadership, on SB 54 and SB 31.

In response to Attorney General Sessions' Mar. 27 statement, state Senate President Pro Tem Sen. deLeon issued the following statement:

Sen. DeLeon [Mar. 27, 2017]: The announcement today by Attorney General Jeff Sessions is nothing short of blackmail. When it comes to immigrants and sanctuary counties and cities, the Attorney and the President are stuck on alternative facts. They are wrong about immigrants and wrong about what makes our communities safer. Data shows that sanctuary counties are not only safer that comparable non-sanctuary jurisdictions but are also better off economically. Instead of making us safer, the Trump administration is spreading fear and promoting race-based scapegoating. Their gun-to-the-head method to force resistant cities and counties to participate in Trump’s inhumane and counterproductive mass-deportation is unconstitutional and will fail."

California's state legislature has already enacted the TRUST Act (AB 4) which took effect on Jan. 1, 2014, which prohibits law enforcement officials from detaining an individual on the basis of a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold after that individual becomes eligible for release from custody, unless certain conditions are met, including among other things that the individual has been convicted of specified crimes.

Developing.