SAN FRANCISCO >> A federal judge Tuesday halted President Donald Trump’s executive order stripping sanctuary jurisdictions of federal funding, dealing a blow to the Trump Administration’s efforts to punish so-called sanctuary cities and counties.
With Santa Clara County and San Francisco’s landmark motion for a preliminary injunction approved, the section of the executive order applying to sanctuary jurisdictions will not go into effect until the court rules on the county’s Feb. 3 lawsuit against the administration.
District Judge William Orrick issued a ruling less than two weeks after a hearing on the case. Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez called it a victory for immigrant rights.
“We’re fighting for the United States Constitution and we succeeded after the Trump Administration tried to do an end run around it,” Chavez said in a statement. “The court’s decision is a win for the neediest people in our nation. Seniors in need of food, foster youth in need of shelter and children who need medical care. We’ll continue being a welcoming, safe and diverse community.”
The case has placed Santa Clara and San Francisco at the center of a contentious debate about sanctuary cities and counties. Hundreds of jurisdictions around the country have declared themselves sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants, proclaiming they will not turn those immigrants over to federal agents, despite repeated threats from the Trump Administration.
But an April 14 hearing at the Phillip Burton Federal Building revealed those threats were largely symbolic—federal attorneys confessed they had no idea how President Trump’s executive order stripping sanctuary jurisdictions of federal funding would actually work.
They said the government at this point hasn’t identified any “sanctuary jurisdictions,” must less defined what the term means.
The admissions suggested that the Trump administration has done little so far to translate months of threatening words from the president and Attorney General Jeff Sessions into a real anti-sanctuary policy.
Orrick appeared to sense the ambiguity of the policy, at one point asking, “What would the purpose of the executive order be?”
