A federal judge in New York ruled Friday the Trump administration's
threat to withhold public safety funds to jurisdictions with so-called
"sanctuary" policies is unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos of the Southern District of New York
ruled in favor of seven states that sued the Justice Department after it
required in June that states comply with new rules enforcing federal
immigration law. The action put the country's local and state
governments on notice that they would lose federal funding if they
refused to cooperate.
Ramos said the Justice Department "did not have lawful authority" to
force local and state governments to notify the federal government when
an undocumented immigrant was in custody.
The states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode
Island, Virginia and Washington joined together for the suit.
New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood called the ruling a "major win" for the state's public safety.
"As we argued, local law enforcement has the right to decide how to meet
their local public safety needs -- and the Trump administration simply
does not have the right to require state and local police to act as
federal immigration agents," she said. "The Trump administration's
attempt to withhold these vital funds was nothing more than a political
attack at the expense of our public safety."
In a separate case in August, a federal appeals court found an executive
order by President Donald Trump threatening to withhold funds to be
unconstitutional. That suit was brought by the city of San Francisco and
Santa Clara County, both in California.
"We conclude that, under the principle of separation of powers and in
consideration of the spending clause, which vests exclusive power to
Congress to impose conditions on federal grants, the executive branch
may not refuse to disperse the federal rants in question without
congressional authorization," Judge Sidney Thomas wrote in that ruling.
Trump said some of the people protected by sanctuary policies include
"bad actors," "predators," "rapists" and "killers" during a sanctuary
cities roundtable event in March.
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