San Francisco Judge Forces Trump To Keep Funding Sanctuary Cities

A federal judge in San Francisco ruled on Friday that the Trump administration cannot suspend funding to 34 ‘sanctuary’ cities which limit or refuse cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

US District Judge William Orrick  – a rich kid lawyer appointed by former President Barack Obama to the US District Court for the Northern District of California – ordered the extension of a preliminary injunction barring the administration from blocking funding or placing conditions on federal  funding for those jurisdictions. Orrick also prevented the administration from imposing immigration-related conditions on two particular grant programs. 

The Trump administration initially tried to block funding to dozens of cities and counties over sanctuary city policies – cutting off their Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grants due to noncompliance with federal immigration enforcement. 

The protected cities include; Boston, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Baltimore, San Jose, San Diego and others – while major counties covered include Multnomah County in Oregon, which encompasses Portland; Allegheny County in Pennsylvania, which encompasses Pittsburgh; and Hennepin County in Minnesota, which encompasses Minneapolis, the Epoch Times reports, nothing further; 

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.

“New York City has released thousands of criminals on the streets to commit violent crimes against law-abiding citizens due to sanctuary city policies,” Bondi said in a statement last month in announcing the legal challenge. “If New York City won’t stand up for the safety of its citizens, we will.”

Her office has also filed similar lawsuits targeting New York state, Colorado, Illinois, Los Angeles, several cities in New Jersey, and Rochester in New York, according to the statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.