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A federal judge ruled on Friday that the Trump administration cannot cut funding to 34 cities and counties in response to so-called “sanctuary” policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
U.S. District Judge William Orrick, who issued a previous order protecting more than a dozen other cities and counties, extended a preliminary injunction blocking the administration from pulling federal money or conditioning the use of the funds for local jurisdictions.
The judge also blocked the administration from placing immigration-related conditions on two grant programs.
Orrick said the administration’s only opposition to an extended injunction was claiming that the first injunction was wrong after it appealed the first order.
The administration has increased pressure on sanctuary jurisdictions under President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan.
Trump issued an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to withhold federal money from sanctuary communities. He also tasked all federal agencies with ensuring that payments to state and local governments do not “abet so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation,” The Associated Press reported.
Many cities and counties sued the federal government, emphasizing that billions of dollars in funding were threatened. The Justice Department has also sued several cities, including New York and Los Angeles, over sanctuary policies.
Orrick said Trump’s orders, and the “executive actions that have parroted them,” demonstrated a “coercive threat” he ruled unconstitutional.
Earlier this year, DHS posted a list of more than 500 sanctuary jurisdictions that the federal government determined to be noncompliant with the administration’s directives, adding that they would each be formally notified.
DHS also said it would notify the local communities if they were potentially violating any federal criminal statutes.
The list was later removed from the DHS website after the department was made aware that it included communities in support of the administration’s immigration policies, the AP reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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