The city of San Francisco sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, challenging President Trump’s executive order to redirect money from cities that have adopted sanctuary city policies.
Reuters reported that San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed the lawsuit in the first court challenge against Trump’s sanctuary city order. It’s also the first city in the United States to file a lawsuit against Trump’s administration.
The cities of San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Denver, Washington D.C., and Seattle offer some protections against undocumented immigrants.
If they don’t comply with Trump’s order, billions of dollars in federal are at risk.
“In blatant disregard of the law, President of the United States seeks to coerce local authorities into abandoning what are known as ‘Sanctuary City’ laws and policies,” said the lawsuit filed on behalf of San Francisco, Reuters reported.
As NBC Bay Area reported, San Francisco has been a sanctuary city since 1989, but the city currently gets about $1.2 billion in federal funding. There’s approximately 400 sanctuary jurisdictions in the United States.
According to the text of Trump’s executive order, “Tens of thousands of removable aliens have been released into communities across the country, solely because their home countries refuse to accept their repatriation.”
Trump argued that some illegal immigrants staying in sanctuary cities have committed grave crimes.
“Many of these aliens are criminals who have served time in our Federal, State, and local jails. The presence of such individuals in the United States, and the practices of foreign nations that refuse the repatriation of their nationals, are contrary to the national interest,” the order wrote.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the state of Washington’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the issue of sanctuary cities, reported The Associated Press.
Sixteen state attorneys general released a statement on Trump’s sanctuary order, criticizing the move.
“And in our view, the president is not adhering to the Constitution when it comes to this executive action,” Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson told AP.
