‘No Man’s Land’: A lone star state story of redemption and rebirth

SAN FRANCISCO — Lone Star Lawyer Stephen McNeil, who helped lead the lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order on sanctuary cities, said Sunday that “no man’s land” is a common term for a state with a strong reputation for civil rights.

McNeil, a leading civil rights lawyer in the country, said he used that term in a speech at the San Francisco Lawyers Association’s National Conference on Saturday to talk about the role of federal law enforcement and the courts in ensuring the protection of civil rights, particularly minorities.

“You can’t say, ‘We’re not going to put in place policies that will put people in harms way,'” McNeil said in a video that was released Sunday on the conference’s YouTube channel.

“That’s no way to live, no way at all.”

McNeill and others have said the lawlessness of sanctuary cities has hurt minority communities.

The case against Trump’s order came to a head last week, when federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., charged nine local law enforcement officers with a range of crimes including violating the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Authorities allege that officers in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities are breaking the law by not deporting illegal aliens who have been charged with crimes.

The San Francisco Police Department was among those targeted, with one officer arrested for allegedly “stealing” a woman’s car, according to a news release from the Justice Department.

The police department said in an earlier statement that it has been “operating in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations” and will “continue to cooperate with federal authorities.”

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said last week that he supported the federal government’s move against sanctuary cities.

Lee has called sanctuary cities “corrupt” and has threatened to sue the city for a court order that would prevent them from providing services to the city.

The sanctuary city argument gained traction as Trump signed an executive order in May targeting sanctuary cities with sanctuary policies.

Sanctuary cities and local law-enforcement officers are generally not required to cooperate fully with federal immigration authorities.

They are often allowed to do so by refusing to comply with federal requests to remove their officers from the streets.

The Trump administration has argued that some jurisdictions have a “sanctuary” policy that allows them to protect immigrants from deportation or other federal authorities.

The White House has also said that cities that are considered sanctuary for illegal immigration will not face any consequences for cooperating with federal law-breakers.

The Justice Department, however, has taken a harder line, charging several sanctuary cities and police officers with crimes in recent months, including for not taking custody of illegal aliens charged with criminal offenses.