San Francisco sues Trump over ‘sanctuary city’ order

The lawsuit was filed by San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera.

“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 in federal court in San Francisco.

San Francisco was one of the many major cities — like Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle and Washington, D.C. — who have refused to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement requests to detain or turn over a person who violates U.S. immigration laws. Last week, Trump signed an executive order threatening to withhold federal money from cities and jurisdictions that have adopted such policies.

In a press conference Tuesday, Herrera called the order both unconstitutional and “un-American.” The lawsuit seeks to stop Trump’s order, as well as have a judge rule San Francisco’s policies are in compliance with federal law.

Herrera was joined by San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Police Chief William Scott in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security on Monday that said police officers and sheriff’s deputies will not follow the president’s order and will not arrest illegal immigrants.

“Our community policing efforts are effective only if we have trust and cooperation of the communities we are charged to protect,” they wrote. “Pressing local jurisdictions to become entangled in federal immigration enforcement betrays that trust and undermines the work our public safety departments have done to improve relations with our residents. We will not jeopardize the public safety of our communities to do the job of the federal government.”

There is no official definition of a “sanctuary city,” but more than 400 jurisdictions nationwide have some sort of policy regarding illegal immigrants.