Wall Street Journal
By Shibani Mahtani
April 19, 2018
A federal court on Thursday upheld a nationwide injunction against making federal grant funding for policing programs contingent on cooperation with immigrant enforcement, a setback for the Justice Department’s push to punish cities that don’t comply with federal immigration law.
The court upheld a ruling by a federal judge last year that temporarily stops the Justice Department from imposing new requirements on federal grant money for so-called sanctuary cities. Under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department hoped to withhold grants from cities that don’t comply with strict federal immigration policies, such as allowing immigration-enforcement agents access to local jails.
The three-judge panel on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that there were strong indications that the Trump administration had overstepped its legal authority in trying to impose these new conditions without approval from Congress. All three judges were appointed by Republican presidents.
“This is our second opinion now … that reaffirms that Chicago was right,” said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in a news conference Thursday. “We [are] not going to be put in a place of a false choice between our values as a welcoming city and our belief fundamentally in community policing.”
The city filed its lawsuit last August after the Justice Department required cities to cooperate with tighter rules to be considered for a long-running federal crime-prevention grant, the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant.
No grants were awarded in 2017 because of the nationwide injunction; $347 million was handed out to state and local governments in 2016. Chicago police use the grant to buy vehicles and SWAT equipment, and to implement community policing programs.
A Justice Department spokesman said the agency believes it has “exercised its authority, given by Congress, to attach conditions to the Byrne JAG grants that promote cooperation with federal immigration authorities.”
In the ruling Thursday, U.S. Circuit Judge Ilana Rovner wrote that the issue at hand wasn’t about immigration policies but about “the separation of powers.”
“If the Executive Branch can determine policy, and then use the power of the purse to mandate compliance with that policy by the state and local governments, all without the authorization or even acquiescence of elected legislators, that check against tyranny is forsaken,” she wrote.
Under President Donald Trump, the Justice Department has made tighter immigration enforcement a priority, vowing to crack down on undocumented migrants and those with criminal records. Dozens of cities have refused to comply and some have faced lawsuits. The Justice Department last month sued the state of California over its sanctuary laws.
In November, a federal judge in San Francisco said the practice of barring federal grant money over immigration enforcement was unconstitutional.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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