Federal Court Rules Trump Administration Can Withhold Grant Funding From Sanctuary Cities
Richard Moorhead
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In the latest in a round of policy victories for the Trump administration on immigration, a federal appeals court has ruled that the Department of Justice can block sanctuary cities from receiving federal grants on account of their failure to comply with federal immigration law.
Former Attorney Jeff Sessions announced the initiative in 2017, that restricts sanctuary cities and states such as San Francisco and Philadelphia from federal grants. The liberal local governments will be prevented from receiving funding from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program.
Predictably, liberal state and local governments turned to the court system with hopes of coercing the federal government to fund their law enforcement agencies, even as they openly refused cooperation with ICE, releasing dangerous criminal illegals onto the streets in spite of ICE requests that they instead be placed into federal custody.
After an initial victory for the sanctuary states and cities in a lower district court, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the Department of Justice does have the authority to deny federal grant funding to scofflaw cities and municipalities.
The ruling allows the DOJ to withhold grant funding not only from cities, but states that flout federal immigration law, as well. Sessions’ funding block to sanctuary entities includes six states: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington.
Cities that flout immigration law and cooperation with ICE won’t simply be left to their own devices, as well, even as they lose federal funding. ICE is buffing up their presence in some of America’s most flagrant sanctuary cities, bringing in an elite team of Customs and Border Patrol personnel to assist in the arrests of dangerous illegal alien criminals.
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