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However, while Judge William Orrick in San Francisco found that
the conditions placed last year on public safety grants by U.S.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions were unconstitutional, he stayed
a nationwide injunction pending appeal.
The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment.
The grant conditions required recipients to provide Immigration
and Customs Enforcement agents access to jails and prisons,
provide notice when detainees were being released and certify
that information was being shared with federal authorities.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra sued the
administration in August 2017. The state argued that putting the
conditions on the $28 million in federal funds it expected would
undermine law enforcement and deter police cooperation by
immigrants, a major population in the state.
Scores of jurisdictions around the United States have adopted
some form of "sanctuary city" policies, which generally prohibit
cooperation with immigration officials. U.S. President Donald
Trump had made a removing illegal immigrants a key campaign
pledge and he often criticizes the sanctuary cities.
Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles have successfully sued the
Trump Administration over the conditions on the public safety
funds, known as a Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, and
those cases are pending appeal.
The use of nationwide injunctions by U.S. District Courts have
been a major roadblock to numerous Trump policies, and the
appeals in the sanctuary city cases may provide an avenue for
the administration to curtail their use by lower courts.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; editing by Bill
Berkrot)
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