Yale study looks at how cities, states can respond to federal actions they don’t approve of

A new report from a pair of advocacy and research groups breaks down what local governments can do in response to troop deployments and other federal actions amid the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign.

The report, from Yale Law School’s Justice Collaboratory and the Center for Policing Equity, looks at how cities, states and counties can respond to federal actions they don’t approve of.

Jorge Camacho, policy director and clinical law lecturer with the Justice Collaboratory, says it comes after a slew of requests asking how to respond to federal National Guard deployments and other federal overreach.

“We wanted to come up with a resource that described what we think communities can and should do and what we think local officials and state officials should do to better protect their communities,” he said.

Camacho says federal agencies have the ability to carry out their own operations. But, they rely on local authorities for things like information sharing or crowd control.

“And so if these same officials were to withhold that information, withhold that support, it can really adversely impact the ability of federal authorities to do their work,” Camacho said.

The report says local authorities can take steps like increasing transparency about agreements they have with federal agencies, and declining to cooperate with federal personnel when the law is violated.