US federal judge stops Trump's government from cutting federal funding

(MENAFN) A federal judge in the United States has stopped the Trump administration from moving forward with plans to cut federal funding to a wide range of sanctuary cities and counties, including several of the country’s largest metropolitan areas.

Earlier this year, District Judge William Orrick ruled that the administration’s attempt to freeze money for local governments that limited cooperation with immigration enforcement was unconstitutional. That decision initially covered more than a dozen jurisdictions, among them San Francisco, Sacramento, Minneapolis, and Seattle.

On Friday, Orrick expanded the injunction to include many more cities and counties that later joined the legal challenge, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Denver, and Albuquerque.

In his order, Orrick noted that the administration did not contest extending the ruling, aside from maintaining that his original decision was flawed—a point it has already taken to appeal.
The ruling also blocks the government from tying immigration-related requirements to two specific federal grant programs.

Shortly after taking office in January, President Donald Trump directed his administration to halt funding to sanctuary jurisdictions. Weeks later, he ordered that federal resources should not be used to support illegal immigration.

At the time, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the Justice Department would withhold grants from such cities, with the administration arguing that these jurisdictions interfered with federal law enforcement and obstructed efforts by immigration authorities to detain undocumented individuals, including violent offenders.

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