US Judge Bars Trump From Withholding Funds to 34 Sanctuary Cities

A federal judge has again blocked the Trump administration’s bid to strip federal funds from so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, broadening an earlier ruling that already limited the policy. U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco late Friday extended his preliminary injunction to cover 34 additional cities and counties, among them Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Denver. Orrick said the administration’s threat to withhold money from local governments that restrict cooperation with federal immigration officers violates constitutional separation-of-powers principles and the Spending Clause, as well as due-process protections. His new order builds on an April decision that protected more than a dozen jurisdictions, including San Francisco, Portland and Seattle, from the same penalties. President Donald Trump had issued executive orders directing Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to freeze or condition grants unless local authorities aided U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The plaintiff cities argued that billions of dollars in public-safety and social-service funding were at risk. The Justice Department is already appealing Orrick’s earlier ruling, and the White House has not responded to the latest decision. The injunction bars the administration from imposing immigration-related conditions on two federal grant programs while the underlying lawsuit proceeds.