Don can’t squeeze funding of sanctuary cities
Stung by his second major setback on immigration, President Donald Trump on Wednesday slammed as “ridiculous” a court order blocking his attempt to deny cities harbouring undocumented immigrants billions in federal funding.
Judge William Orrick of San Francisco’s federal district court on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction barring any attempt to implement Mr Trump’s January 25 executive order.
While confusing Mr Orrick’s court with the higher-level ninth circuit appeals court also based in San Francisco, Mr Trump made clear he was ready to fight the decision.
“First the Ninth Circuit rules against the ban & now it hits again on sanctuary cities — both ridiculous rulings. See you in the Supreme Court!” Mr Trump tweeted.
Earlier, a White House statement branded the ruling, a new setback to Mr Trump’s promised crackdown on illegal immigrants, as “a gift to the criminal gang and cartel element in our country, empowering human trafficking and sex trafficking.” It was the second major legal blow to Mr Trump’s pledge to sharply tighten government immigration policy. In February, the Ninth Circuit ruled against the White House order to suspend immigration from seven mostlyMuslim countries as well as all refugees. The court ruled that the order was in effect a ban on Muslims, violating the US constitution's guarantee of religious freedom.
Mr Orrick also ruled that Mr Trump’s January 25 order to deny federal funds to sanctuary cities violated the Constitution.
“The Constitution vests the spending powers in Congress, not the president, so the order cannot constitutionally place new conditions on federal funds,” he said.
“Federal funding that bears no meaningful relationship to immigration enforcement cannot be threatened merely because a jurisdiction chooses an immigration enforcement strategy of which the president disapproves,” Mr Orrick said.
His decision could affect more than 300 cities and counties that have denounced Mr Trump’s order.
But the White House said in a vitriolic statement late Tuesday, that “the rule of law suffered another blow, as an unelected judge unilaterally rewrote immigration policy”.
It called Mr Orrick’s ruling, in a case that focused on San Francisco itself and Santa Clara County, home to Silicon Valley and San Jose, as “one more example of egregious overreach” by a single judge that “undermines faith in our legal system.”
“San Francisco, and cities like it, are putting the well-being of criminal aliens before the safety of our citizens, and those city officials who authored these policies have the blood of dead Americans on their hands.”