WASHINGTON: A US judge ruled Thursday that Donald Trump cannot legally withhold federal funds from authorities offering limited protections to undocumented migrants, known as “sanctuary cities,” as the president presses his aggressive mass deportation effort.
Trump has vowed to deport “millions” of undocumented migrants in his second term, after running an election campaign that focused on illegal immigration.
The cities and counties that include San Francisco, Chicago and New York do not allow their local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with national-level immigration officers to identify and remove undocumented residents.
Trump has railed against local politicians who seek to protect people with irregular situations from being arrested and deported.
He has threatened to deny federal funds to roads and transportation infrastructure unless the cities and counties concerned comply and begin to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Trump and his administration “ARE HEREBY RESTRAINED AND ENJOINED from directly or indirectly taking any action to withhold, freeze, or condition federal funds from the Cities and Counties” with sanctuary city policies, William H. Orrick, a federal judge for the Northern District of California, wrote in an order.
Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller fired back at the judge on X, saying that the “Judicial coup continues.”
Although the policies vary depending on the location, sanctuary cities typically prohibit public officials from telling federal agents about undocumented immigrants if they are at risk of deportation.
While previous administrations also routinely carried out deportations, the Trump administration has begun using military aircraft and even sought to cancel the visas of students who have protested US policy.
Trump has also invoked obscure wartime legislation to fly hundreds of alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador, which is imprisoning the migrants.
Last week another federal judge blocked Trump’s administration from quickly revoking the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti.
In March, the administration said it was moving to revoke the legal status of some 532,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who came to the United States under a “parole” program initially launched by former president Joe Biden in October 2022.
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The parole program allowed entry to the United States for two years for up to 30,000 migrants per month from the four countries, which have grim human rights records.