San Francisco, in an preemptive effort to protect itself as a sanctuary city, will officially file a lawsuit against the Trump administration Friday afternoon, City Attorney David Chiu announced.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of a suit filed yesterday by the U.S. Justice Department against the city of Chicago, Cook County, and the state of Illinois for allegedly interfering with President Donald Trump’s mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. Newly sworn-in Attorney General Pam Bondi also ordered the Justice Department to pause federal funding for sanctuary cities as one of her 14 “first-day” directives.
“That made it abundantly clear and abundantly real,” Chiu said.
The lawsuit against Chicago appears to be the first federal legal attempt to crack down on sanctuary cities that limit the cooperation between Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and the local police officers.
It also follows the emboldened Trump administration’s threats of criminal charges and federal funding slashes to sanctuary cities — including San Francisco, which sits in Trump’s bullseye — on lifelines such as transportation. San Francisco receives billions of dollars in federal funding.
“This would be catastrophic to our city,” Chiu said, “to the services that we need to provide to our community, and to our local economy.” Santa Clara County counsel Tony LoPresti, who spoke alongside Chiu, said billions are at stake as well for Santa Clara.
The lawsuit is led by San Francisco and Santa Clara counties, and is joined by a host of others, including the city of Portland in Oregon, the city of New Haven in Connecticut, and King County in Washington.
Chiu said at least one more Bay Area county will join in the near future, but for now, refrained from naming it. Chiu also expects more jurisdictions across the country to join this effort.
In 2017, a federal judge blocked Trump’s executive order to deny federal funding to sanctuary cities that limited municipal coordination with ICE.
Chiu explained that there are not many differences between the current executive order and the one from 2017. But in addition to that, he said, Trump is now also threatening local and state officials with investigations and criminal and civil prosecutions.
“The Trump administration is asserting a right that it does not have,” Chiu said. “They are trying to tell us how to use our resources and to commandeer our local law enforcement.”
San Francisco passed its sanctuary city ordinance in 1989, which largely prohibits local law enforcement from using city funds or resources to assist ICE agents unless the assistance is required by federal or state law.
“This is the federal government coercing local officials to bend to their will or face defunding or prosecution,” Chiu added. “And that is illegal, authoritarian.”
Here are some additional resources and information for immigrants.
Serious question: Can city residents sue the city over this use of our funds when the city is so far over budget?
Not all of us support the sanctuary city policy. It would be interesting to take a public vote on it.
“Can city residents sue the city over this use of our funds when the city is so far over budget?” – Anyone can bring a lawsuit, but since you’re worried about funds being wasted on lawsuits that’s particularly ironic.
Local officials refuse to follow federal law. In the not so distant past, that was the position of Mississippi/Alabama defenders of segregation.
Wrong. Federal law enforces itself, local law does not have to do that job for them or use local tax dollars to achieve federal goals. All sanctuary actually does is stop our local law enforcement from targeting people specifically for immigration status. Period, if they are committing crimes otherwise they are not protected by sanctuary. Federal immigration status is not a job for SFPD. It’s black and white law.
This is stupidity; stop wasting our tax dollars. Californians majority have spoken. Are you not listening? We cannot afford illegals; illegals have broken the law and must adhere to immigration laws. All illegals must apply and be vetted period.
“All illegals must apply and be vetted period.” – if that were an option they’d take it, absolutely most of them would. But it’s really not. Educate yourself on the process, it’s not trivial. And if you’re broke and just trying to survive and escape gang violence and corrupt police, is it really the immigration law that’s your biggest concern? No. The vast majority are not trying to break any laws at all, they just want to live life. You want to lump the criminals with the rest, that’s wrong. Factually wrong.