“We’re a nation of laws, and we’re not following our laws on immigration,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told Attorney General Jeff Sessions at a Senate hearing on Wednesday. “Is there anything that we can do about sanctuary cities, in terms of legislation, that would help you?” the senator asked the AG.

“Absolutely,” Sessions replied. “For example, I think we could authorize explicitly…legislation that mandates a cooperative relationship with state and local areas.”

Sessions condemned the “ideological open-borders, radical policy” whre a city or county refuses to honor ICE requests to detain illegal aliens who have committed crimes:

“And that means the ICE officers have to go out in the community, place themselves and maybe neighbors at risk to try to apprehend, sometimes dangerous, criminals. And I cannot agree to that. I cannot accept having our officers placed at that kind of risk. And it’s an important matter; it’s not a little matter,” Sessions said.

“And I think these cities need to re-evaluate what they’re saying. I don’t think they know what they’re saying. I don’t think they understand the implications of their refusal to cooperate with brother and sister law officers like our ICE officers. We cooperate with them.”

Sessions said the partnership between state and federal law enforcement officers has contributed to a 30-year decline in crime. He said the erosion of that partnership in sanctuary cities “is the biggest breach of that relationship I’ve seen in my 40 years of law enforcement.”

“If a person can cross the border on Monday and end up in San Francisco on Wednesday, hauling dope and gets arrested with cocaine or heroin, why would not the city want the ICE, after they’ve served their time, to take them out of the country like the law contemplates? I find, like you, that’s amazing.”

On the same day Sessions testified, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat running for re-election, issued a “cease and desist” notice to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The tactics deployed by ICE agents “have become increasingly reckless and reflect a serious disregard for the rule of law,” Cuomo wrote to the head of ICE, giving him several examples of recent immigration raids that “raise significant legal and public safety concerns.”

Cuomo also issued an executive order prohibiting ICE arrests in state facilities and prohibiting state agencies from inquiring about immigration status.

(Courtesy of CNSNews.com)