Wall Street Journal
By Alejandro Lazo
August 14, 2017
SAN FRANCISCO—California and San Francisco are challenging the Trump administration through separate lawsuits over its decision to withhold federal grant money from cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced the suit Monday at San Francisco City Hall with California State Attorney General Xavier Becerra. San Francisco filed its suit on Friday. Mr. Becerra said the state plans to file its suit today.
The lawsuits are the latest attempts by a number of cities and states to push back against the Trump administration’s immigration actions. Cities known as sanctuary cities have vowed to protect undocumented immigrants, whom they say are vital to their local economies and integral to their communities.
Some cities and police departments refuse to detain undocumented immigrants at the request of federal officials for political and legal reasons.
Chicago has already filed suit over the move by the Justice Department to withhold a federal crime grant.
The Justice Department said it would require cities to cooperate on immigration enforcement to be considered for a long-running federal crime prevention grant, the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said last month such cooperation is long overdue.
“The president is bent on trying to vilify immigrants and punish cities that prioritize real, effective public safety over splitting up hardworking families,” said Mr. Herrera.
He said the Trump administration cannot use federal grant fund requirements to pressure cities to cooperate with its immigration crackdown.
“By placing unconstitutional immigration enforcement conditions on public safety grants, the Trump administration is threatening to harm a range of law enforcement initiatives across California,” Mr. Becerra said.
The San Francisco suit says the Justice Department’s warning that it will remove crime-fighting funds is unconstitutional.
If Congress had intended for that cooperation to be part of the grant-making process they would have written it into law, the suit says.
A federal judge in San Francisco has already ruled that President Donald Trump’s executive order threatening to pull funding from sanctuary cities is likely unconstitutional after San Francisco and Santa Clara County sued the administration over that order.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Write to Alejandro Lazo at alejandro.lazo@wsj.com
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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