A federal judge has barred the Trump administration from withholding federal funds from jurisdictions that have declared themselves as “sanctuaries” for immigrants living in the country illegally, citing precedent of a 2017 lawsuit from Santa Clara County and the city of San Francisco.

Related Articles

Judge bars Trump from denying federal funds to ‘sanctuary’ cities that limit immigration cooperation

Bay Area cuisine thrives on global flavors. Trump’s trade war puts that at risk.

California sheriff says she’s ‘not crossing any lines’ in cooperating with ICE

Kristoff: Brace Yourself. Trump’s Trade War With China Will Get Uglier.

A dozen states sue Trump administration over tariffs

U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick issued the preliminary injunction Thursday morning, delivering a win to a coalition led by Bay Area cities and counties that feared their budgets for the upcoming fiscal year would be decimated as federal funds help pay for services relating to health care, education, infrastructure and other essential services.

For Santa Clara County and San Francisco — the two jurisdictions leading the lawsuit — federal dollars make up roughly 30% and 16% of their budgets, respectively. The lawsuit was filed in February in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California several weeks after President Donald Trump issued an executive order to cut off funds from localities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials.

San Jose, Oakland, San Diego, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Emeryville and Monterey County have also signed onto the lawsuit, along with other sanctuary cities across the country.

In the six-page order, Orrick said the coalition’s “well-founded fear” that they would lose out on federal funds is even stronger than it was in 2017. He said the coalition has also “demonstrated a likelihood of irreparable harm.”

“The threat to withhold funding causes them irreparable injury in the form of budgetary uncertainty, deprivation of constitutional rights and undermining trust between the cities and counties and the communities they serve,” Orrick wrote.

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said in a statement that they are “pleased” the court ruled that “the Trump administration cannot coerce” them into “joining their reckless and illegal mass deportation efforts.”

“They want to commandeer local police officers as federal ICE agents, while strong-arming local officials with threats of withholding federal funds that support our police department, our efforts to address homelessness and our public health system,” Chiu said. “As we have seen, the Trump administration has now deported someone by error, and ICE agents have unlawfully arrested United States citizens.”

Santa Clara County officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

As Trump pledges to carry out mass deportations, the president has escalated his war with liberal bastions like California over their policies to protect immigrants living in the country illegally — going as far as directing Department of Justice staff to investigate and criminally charge state and local officials who don’t comply with his mandates.

During Trump’s first term, cities and counties across the state passed sanctuary policies that prohibited local law enforcement from assisting with immigration raids or handing over people in county jails to immigration authorities. In the lawsuit, Santa Clara County and San Francisco argue that immigration enforcement is the responsibility of the federal government, and using local law enforcement for this purpose pulls resources away from local problems.

Trump and other Republicans, however, contend that sanctuary policies allow immigrants who are living in the country illegally and have criminal records to escape deportation.

Orrick’s decision to grant the preliminary injunction comes at a time when the Trump administration has been openly defying court orders around immigration and deportations. Most recently, a battle has erupted over the wrongful deportation of a Maryland man to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison, CECOT. Trump officials have claimed without evidence that Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang. The Supreme Court has said that the feds must “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia, but the Trump administration says they don’t have the power to do that.

The legal battles between the Trump administration and California aren’t new. The state sued Trump 123 times between 2017 and 2021, according to Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office. A recent analysis of those cases by CalMatters found that Trump lost two-thirds of the time.

In the first four months of Trump’s second term, California has already sued the federal government several times, including over the issue of tariffs, birthright citizenship and federal funding.

Santa Clara County and San Francisco have also filed separate lawsuits around Trump’s Inauguration Day executive order to end birthright citizenship.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.