U.S. District Judge William Orrick III in San Francisco issued a decision Thursday rejecting a request by the Department of Justice to reconsider his April decision to block President Donald Trump’s executive order threatening to cut funding from sanctuary cities.
After San Francisco and Santa Clara County sued earlier this year, Judge Orrick blocked the order on the grounds that it was too broad. He relied partly on “public comments” by the president and Attorney General Jeff Sessions in reaching that conclusion.
“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,” he said.
In response, Sessions issued a memorandum to clarify the executive order, indicating that “sanctuary jurisdiction” would only include those that “willfully refuse to comply” with 8 USC § 1373, the law that stipulates jurisdictions “may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, [federal immigration officers] information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.” He also limited the funds at stake to those derived from discretionary Justice Department grants.
Originally published by Breitbart.
