A federal judge ruled on Aug. 22 that the federal government cannot suspend funding to 34 “sanctuary” jurisdictions across the country that limit or refuse cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco ordered the extension of a preliminary injunction that bars the administration from blocking funding or placing conditions on federal money for those jurisdictions. The judge also blocked the administration from imposing immigration-related conditions on two particular grant programs.
The Trump administration has tried to block funding to dozens of cities and counties by cutting off their Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grants because they either have not cooperated with or have obstructed the federal government in its enforcement of immigration law.
Those protected under Orrick’s order include the cities of Boston, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Baltimore, San Jose, San Diego, and many more. Some of the major counties covered under the order include Multnomah County in Oregon, which encompasses Portland; Allegheny County in Pennsylvania, which encompasses Pittsburgh; and Hennepin County in Minnesota, which encompasses Minneapolis.
The Trump administration has ratcheted up pressure on sanctuary communities as it seeks to make good on President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to remove millions of people who are in the country illegally.
One executive order issued by Trump directs Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to withhold federal money from sanctuary jurisdictions. Another order directs every federal agency to ensure that payments to state and local governments do not “abet so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation.”
In May, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a list of more than 500 “sanctuary jurisdictions” and said that all of those municipalities and counties would be sent a formal notification deeming them to be noncompliant with the Trump administration’s orders. Those officials would also be informed by DHS on whether they were said to be in violation of any federal laws.
Orrick said in his order that the administration’s decisions to withhold federal funding in those jurisdictions are a “coercive threat” that he deemed to be “unconstitutional.”
“I determined that the Cities and Counties are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims that defendants’ actions with respect to the enjoined executive orders and related agency directives were unconstitutional violations of the separation of powers and spending clause doctrines and violated the Fifth Amendment, Tenth Amendment and Administrative Procedure Act,” he wrote.
In recent months, the Justice Department has ramped up pressure on several major cities over such policies. For example, the department filed a lawsuit against New York City and Mayor Eric Adams’s administration challenging the city’s laws on how it handles illegal immigrants.
Share your thoughts by scrolling down to leave a comment.
