A federal appeals court on Thursday delivered a blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on sanctuary cities, by upholding a nationwide injunction that blocked the Justice Department from denying funding to jurisdictions that fail to cooperate on immigration matters.
A panel of three Republican-appointed judges on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the injunction issued by a federal district court judge in Chicago. The appeals court judges said Attorney General Jeff Sessions lacked the power to impose two of the three conditions on grant recipients, which were enacted to boost sanctuary cities’ cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
“The Attorney General in this case used the sword of federal funding to conscript state and local authorities to aid in federal civil immigration enforcement,” Judge Ilana Rovner wrote in her opinion. “But the power of the purse rests with Congress, which authorized the federal funds at issue and did not impose any immigration enforcement conditions on the receipt of such funds.”
The Justice Department said it stands by its effort to tie the federal grants to immigration enforcement, and chided the appeals court for upholding the nationwide injunction.
“The Justice Department believes it exercised its authority, given by Congress, to attach conditions to Byrne JAG grants that promote cooperation with federal immigration authorities when the jurisdiction has an illegal alien who has committed a crime in their custody,” Justice Department spokesman Devin O’Malley said in a statement. “Nationwide injunctions allow a single federal district judge to set policy by ordering relief outside the scope of the particular case.”
“Many in the legal community have expressed concern that the use of nationwide injunctions is inconsistent with the separation of powers, and that their increased use creates a dangerous precedent,” he continued. “We will continue to fight to carry out the Department’s commitment to the rule of law, protecting public safety, and keeping criminal aliens off the streets to further perpetrate crimes.”
Sessions announced in July that cities and states would be eligible for Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants, or JAG grants, only if they adhered to three criteria related to enforcement of federal immigration laws.
Those conditions include officials giving 48-hour notice to federal authorities before releasing anyone Immigration and Customs Enforcement wants the state to keep detained, and giving Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents access to detention facilities. Last year, U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber blocked the Justice Department from imposing those conditions to receive JAG grants.
The third criteria requires state and local officials to provide personal information and release dates of illegal immigrants detailed statewide.
The City of Chicago challenged the requirements from the Justice Department, arguing they were unlawful and unconstitutional.
One of the judges on the 7th Circuit panel, Daniel Manion, said he would have only applied the injunction to Chicago, and said he believed “the entry of the nationwide injunction constituted an overstep of the district court’s authority.”
