DoJ says it will prosecute officials who resist Trump’s immigration crackdown

Justice department directive comes amid slate of executive orders targeting US immigrants and asylum seekers

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The US justice department is ordering federal prosecutors to target state and local officials who resist the administration's planned mass deportation campaign, marking a dramatic escalation in Donald Trump's immigration crackdown just days after taking office.

The acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove, directed prosecutors nationwide, in a document obtained by the Washington Post and the Associated Press, to investigate and potentially bring criminal charges against officials in sanctuary" jurisdictions for harboring" undocumented immigrants or withholding immigration information from federal authorities.