San Francisco judge will hear landmark motion over Trump policy defunding sanctuary cities

UPDATE 4/13/2017 6 PM:

A federal judge in San Francisco will hear two cases about sanctuary communities and federal funding on Friday. San Francisco and Santa Clara counties have both sued President Donald Trump, calling some of his executive orders “unconstitutional.”

On January 25, President Trump signed an executive order that reinstated the Secure Communities Program, which ICE uses to “target illegal immigrants for removal.” It also threatened to withhold federal grant money from sanctuary communities that harbor undocumented immigrants. Two months later, Attorney General Jeff Sessions reiterated the message, asking sanctuary cities to change their policies or else.

“Immigration enforcement is a fed government responsibility,” said Charles McKee, Monterey County counsel. “It’s not the responsibility of local governments or the states. For years, the federal government has failed to adequately handle immigration enforcement and now, they should not be allowed to, and are not allowed to, under the law, get local governments and state governments to do their work.”

Within days of President Trump signing that executive order, San Francisco and Santa Clara County both filed lawsuits asking for a preliminary injunction. Since then, more than 30 cities and counties across the country have filed amicus curiae briefs in support of the suits, including Monterey and Santa Cruz counties and the city of Salinas. The briefs claim constitutional amendments are being violated.

“Whether we have the due process and being able to address these issues that the federal government is suddenly dropping on us, that’s the Fifth Amendment part of it,” McKee said. “As well as the Tenth Amendment, which is essentially saying the fed government doesn’t have the power to interfere with states’ rights and states’ rights flow down to cities and counties within the states they come down from.”

Many viewers have asked us a particular question, so we posed the same question to Salinas City Council Member Tony Barrera – Should Salinas even have a say since it’s not formally a sanctuary city and no federal funding has been withheld so far.

“I think it’s the right move,” Barrera said. “But at the same time, there are people in Salinas who want us to do something more formal. But let’s face it, regardless of what state or county or cities do, the federal government will do what (it wants to). If they want to bring ICE in here, they’re going to do it. But you know what? We haven’t seen anything, nobody’s been arrested as far as out here in our communities.”

On the eve of the court hearing, officials in Santa Clara County discussed the results of a sanctuary community study conducted by the Center of American Progress. It says, in part that sanctuary communities, while they may be symbolic, are seeing positive results.

“On average, sanctuary counties there were 35.5 fewer crimes committed per 10,000 people,” said Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese. “The annual income was $4,353 higher than in non-sanctuary communities.”

Friday’s hearing starts at 9 a.m. and a decision isn’t expected right away.

“He may even issue some kind of tentative ruling on it that day, but it’s not likely it’s going to be an immediate ruling on the issue,” McKee said. “However, I would also say it’s not, it’s probably not going to take very long to get a decision from the court understanding these are important issues.

The judge hearing the case is Judge William Orrick III, who was nominated to the position in 2012 by former President Barack Obama. Orrick has heard high profile cases before. He was the judge in the case regarding secret Planned Parenthood videos, barring an anti-abortion group from releasing the footage.

ORIGINAL POST:

KION’s Mariana Hicks brings you the latest on a high-stakes case involving months of preparation culminating in a San Francisco courtroom tomorrow as the fight over Sanctuary communities continues.Judge William H. Orrick will hear the claims during a 9 A.M. hearing in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

He will hear arguments in a motion by Santa Clara County to temporarily block President Donald Trump’s executive order stripping so-called sanctuary jurisdictions of federal funding.

San Francisco and Santa Clara county have both filed suits asking for a preliminary injunction to stop the executive order threatening cuts to federal funding for communities protecting undocumented immigrants.

More than 30 cities and counties across the country have filed legal briefs in support of the suits including Monterey and Santa Cruz counties and the city of Salinas.

The hearing is tomorrow morning at 9 A.M. in San Francisco, but a decision isn’t expected immediately.