By STEVE ROBINSON – Maine Wire
A leading progressive law firm in Maine is advising public school officials on how they can effectively resist potential immigration enforcement actions that may involve the families of minors who attend government-run schools, including by destroying evidence of potential immigration crimes.
The advice may place school officials in the legal crosshairs of the Trump Administration under a new policy advisory distributed by the U.S. Department of Justice, which warns state and local officials not to interfere with federal law enforcement activities.
“[S]chool officials should generate a plan for what to do if immigration officials seek to conduct activities at school, and provide appropriate training to those who may come in contact with officials,” law firm Drummond Woodsum warned in an “Immigration Client Alert” distributed on Jan. 21.
A copy of that advisory email was obtained by the Maine Wire and is published below in full.
The memo advises clients who may have evidence that a student and that student’s parents or guardians are not U.S. citizens or are present in the U.S. without authorization.
According to Drummond Woodsum, school officials should destroy those records or stop collecting them so as to obstruct or prevent federal immigration officials from enforcing American immigration law.
Schools may have collected data on students’ U.S. citizenship, nationality, country of birth, U.S. entry date, the date a student first attended school, or the immigration status of the student or their parents or guardians, the memo states.
“[T]his information should not be stored as part of a students education record and should be destroyed as soon as it is no longer needed,” the memo states.
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Drummond Woodsum, the Portland-based law firm that instructed schools to destroy evidence of potential illegal immigration, is a well-known left-wing firm in Maine.
In addition to practicing law, the firm is a major progressive lobby shop that generally advocates for Democratic Party policies and clients aligned with the Democratic Party.
The firm has been deeply involved in not only immigration-related disputes but also efforts to pressure public schools to conform with left-wing policies rooted in gender ideology. The firm provides a robust government services division — subsidized by lucrative payments from taxpayer-funded sources — for contracting with local governments and public education entities.
In the case of the latest “Immigration Client Alert,” Drummond Woodsum may be advising its local school clients to take steps that could draw the ire — and potential legal sanction — of the federal Department of Justice.
President Donald Trump’s administration, both before and after his inauguration on January 20, has stated that it will enforce existing U.S. laws and prosecute government officials who hinder, undermine, or impede federal immigration enforcement.
On January 21, one day after he was sworn into office, President Trump’s Department of Justice issued a memo under the Acting Deputy Attorney General underscoring the administration’s willingness to target state and local officials with criminal penalties if they interfere with immigration enforcement actions.
From the memo:
The Supremacy Clause and other authorities require state and local actors to comply with the Executive Branch’s immigration enforcement initiatives. Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration- related commands and requests pursuant to, for example, the President’s extensive Article Il authority with respect to foreign affairs and national security, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the Alien Enemies Act. The U.S. Attomey’s Offices and litigating components of the Department of Justice shall investigate incidents involving any such misconduct for potential prosecution, including for obstructing federal functions in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371, and violations of other statutes, such as 8 U.S.C. §§ 1324, 1373. Declination decisions with respect 10 resistance, obstruction, or other non-compliance with lawful immigration-related commands and requests from federal authorities shall be disclosed as Urgent Reports pursuant to Justice Manual § 1-13.130.
Finally, laws and actions that threaten to impede Executive Branch immigration initiatives, including by prohibiting disclosures of information to federal authorities engaged in immigration enforcement activities, threaten public safety and national security. The Civil Division shall work with the newly established Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group. within the Office of the Associate Attorney General, to identify state and local laws, policies, and activities that are inconsistent with Executive Branch immigration initiatives and, where appropriate, to take legal action to challenge such laws.
Here’s the full memo:
Border Czar Tom Homan, the former ICE Director under Trump’s last term in office, addressed far-left critics of the president’s immigration policies two days after Inauguration Day in an interview with Fox & Friends.
“Help, work with us because you’ve forced us in the community. Here’s what’s going to happen. We’ll find the bad guy, but when we find him, he’s going to be with others, others that may not be a criminal priority. But guess what? If they’re in the United States illegally, they’re going to be arrested, too,” Homan said.
“Sanctuary cities are going to get exactly what they don’t want — more agents in the communities, more people arrested, more collaterals arrested. So that’s a game they want to play? Game on,” said Homan.
The long-time law enforcement official said that ICE would initially be focused on targeting the most serious criminal offenders, including those convicted of or suspected of crimes in the U.S. or other countries.
“We’re concentrating on the worst first, the public safety threats and national security threats,” Homan said. “And just yesterday, in the last 24 hours, ICE arrested over 308… serious criminals. Some of them were murderers. Some of them were rapists. Some of them raped a child. Some were sexual assault of a child.”
The Drummond Woodsum memo was distributed under the names of Kelsey M. Cromie and Abigail W. Silsby. Cromie is part of the firm’s School Law Practice Group, while Silsby is part of its School Law and Labor and Employment Groups. Here’s the full Drummond Woodsum memo instructing schools on how to undermine federal law enforcement:
Naturally, Drummond Woodsum’s website homepage consists of a “Land Acknowledgement” in which the firm professes its guilt for having constructed its law office head quarters on land “stolen” from indigenous tribes.
To wit, the law firm has not indicated when it plans to return the real estate to the tribes.
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