A federal judge in California on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to withhold funding from cities that limit their cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, another setback for President Trump in what is shaping up to be a long season of litigation surrounding the clash between the White House and so-called sanctuary cities.
The judge, William H. Orrick of United States District Court for the Northern District of California, issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the administration, directing it to stop trying to cut off aid to sanctuary jurisdictions. But the order does not prevent the federal government from moving forward on designating certain places as “sanctuaries,” nor does it keep the administration from enforcing conditions for doling out federal money if they already exist, as the Justice Department has already begun to do with some law enforcement grants.
San Francisco and Santa Clara County, which had asked the judge for an injunction, “have a strong interest in avoiding unconstitutional federal enforcement and the significant budget uncertainty that has resulted from the Order’s broad and threatening language,” the judge wrote, referring to Mr. Trump’s January executive order on immigration.
Trump Pledges to Defend Executive Order on Sanctuary Cities
WASHINGTON — President Trump vowed on Wednesday to challenge California jurisdictions all the way to the Supreme Court after a federal judge there stopped him from withholding funds to penalize them for shielding illegal immigrants.
Mr. Trump, who twice has been blocked by courts from imposing a temporary travel ban on visitors from select Muslim-majority countries, expressed frustration that once again a judge in a single district could thwart him from taking action. The judge who issued the latest ruling is in California, the same state as the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which heard the previous cases.
