Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is moving onto the national stage as he challenges President Donald Trump on immigration, The Hill reports.
The City of Chicago filed a lawsuit over its status as a sanctuary city for immigrants, asking a federal court to keep Attorney General Jeff Sessions from restricting federal grant money for local law enforcement.
"We want you to come to Chicago if you believe in the American dream," Emanuel, a Democrat, told CNN on Monday. "By forcing us, or the police department, to choose between the values of the city and the philosophy of the police department, in community policing, I think it's a false choice and it undermines our actual safety agenda."
He added, "So we're going to be filing a case saying the Justice Department is wrong on constitutional legal grounds ant that we will always be a welcoming city ... but it also is true that our police department is part of a neighborhood, part of a community, built on the premise of trust."
Emanuel is up for re-election in 2019, and could be challenging Trump due to his low popularity in the city.
"The only two people more disliked in Chicago than Rahm are [Illinois GOP Gov.] Bruce Rauner and Donald Trump (by a long margin)," Eric Oliver of the University of Chicago told the Hill in an email.
"Trump hasn't done anything to bring the violence rate down," he continued, "so he hasn't exactly won many supporters since taking office."
Oliver added that "Chicago also has a HUGE immigrant population and much of it is unauthorized. This includes not simply Mexicans and Central Americans, but also a LOT of Eastern Europeans."
"Many of these folks are friends and relatives of citizens and voters."
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