'Sanctuary cities' rules blocked

Judge: AG Jeff Sessions’ grant restrictions might exceed his authority.

In a ruling with national impact, a federal judge in Chicago on Friday blocked the Trump administration’s rules requiring so-called sanctuary cities to cooperate with immigration agents in order to get a public safety grant.

U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber wrote in his 41-page ruling that Chicago had shown a “likelihood of success” in its arguments that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions exceeded his authority in imposing new standards governing Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants across the country.

He also said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration had shown the city could suffer “irreparable harm” in its relationship with the immigrant community if it were to comply with the U.S. Department of Justice’s new standards.

“Once such trust is lost, it cannot be repaired through an award of money damages, making it the

type of harm that is especially hard to rectify” if he were to wait until the lawsuit is settled, Leinenweber wrote.

The preliminary injunction Leinenweber granted applies to districts nationwide.

Emanuel called the ruling a victory for cities, counties and states nationwide and “a clear statement that the Trump administration is wrong.”

“It means essential resources for public safety will not come with unlaw- ful strings attached, and the Trump Justice Department cannot continue to coerce us into violating and abandoning our values,” he said.

Representatives of the Jus- tice Department did not imme- diately return messages seeking comment.

The ruling comes a little over a month after the Eman- uel administration filed suit

against the Justice Department over its new requirements for “sanctuary cities” such as Chicago that want federal fund- ing to give notice when immigrants in the country illegally are about to be released from custody and allow immigra- tion agents access to local jails.

The new regulations, announced by Sessions in July, would also require local authorities to give 48 hours’ notice “where practicable” before releasing from cus- tody people whom federal immigration agents suspect of being in the country illegally.

In oral a rgum e nts last month, lawyers for the city argued that keeping people longer than 48 hours is uncon- stitutional and that the move by Sessions was a slippery slope that could lead to other strings on federal money tied to administration priorities.

Chicago has already applied for $1.5 million in Byrne grants for next year, and other local municipalities and Cook County have requested about $800,000 more as part of the same application.

Arguing for the city last week, attorney Ronald Safer

said the Byrne grants were set up specifically by Congress to give local governments leeway to decide how best to allocate money to meet their law-enforcement priorities. Sessions is attempting to “sweep away the goals of the (Byrne) JAG program,” Safer said.

If Sessions is allowed to take this step, he could conceivably try to exercise much broader authority over what cities have to do to qualify for these or other grants, Safer said.

“This attorney general could say, ‘We believe building a wall is related to law enforcement, so unless you send four squads of Chicago police to help build the wall, you will get no JAG money,’” Safer said. Assistant Attorney General

Chad Readler countered there are already several strings attached to the Byrne grants, among them an Obama administration requirement that cities don’t use the money on military-style weapons. Standards are also in place for the types of police body armor that can be purchased with the money, Readler said.

If Chicago doesn’t like the rules, the city can simply opt not to apply for the money, Readler said.