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California Judge Blocks Trump From Withholding Funds to Sanctuary Cities

By Ben Fractenberg | April 25, 2017 5:16pm
 A California judge blocked an executive order by President Donald Trump to cut funds to sanctuary cities.
A California judge blocked an executive order by President Donald Trump to cut funds to sanctuary cities.
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DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg

MIDTOWN — A California federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration plan to cut funding to so-called sanctuary cities including New York, according to the ruling.

Judge William H. Orrick wrote that cities that do not fully cooperate with immigration officials would "suffer irreparable harm absent an injunction" if federal funds were withheld following President Donald Trump’s immigration executive order. 

A suit, which was first brought by San Francisco in January, "is about state sovereignty and a local government’s autonomy to devote resources to local priorities and to control the exercise of its own police powers, rather than being forced to carry out the agenda of the Federal government," the city's lawyers wrote.

The Justice Department recently sent letters to nine sanctuary cities threatening to cut funding and accusing New York of being “soft on crime.”

The Tuesday injunction did not find the executive order unconstitutional, but said the constitutional challenges from cities seemed valid. 

"The Counties have demonstrated that they are likely to succeed on their claims that the Executive Order purports to wield powers exclusive to Congress, and violates the Tenth and Fifth Amendments," Orrick wrote. 

"These constitutional violations are not limited to San Francisco or Santa Clara, but apply equally to all states and local jurisdictions."

Mayor Bill de Blasio said the judge told the Trump administration "no you can't" go beyond your authority by trying to cut funding to cities that won't "scapegoat immigrants." 

"New York is the safest big city in America because we work with all our residents, not against some of them," the mayor said in a statement. "We said from the beginning that a stroke of a pen in Washington would not change our values or how we protect our people.”