San Francisco, Santa Clara County file lawsuit against the federal government in effort to keep massive federal funds
San Francisco, California – The top legal official of San Francisco said on Friday that the city has started a lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging policies targeted at sanctuary cities. Joined by Santa Clara County and many other jurisdictions, the city is facing what it claims to be unconstitutional federal government attacks on local autonomy and public safety.
Emphasizing the city’s opposition to federal initiatives to assist local law enforcement in immigration enforcement, City Attorney David Chiu described the goals of the lawsuit at a news conference.
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The legal lawsuit targets Executive Order 14159 and related U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) memoranda threatening to withdraw federal funds from communities not supporting federal immigration initiatives. These records also imply potential repercussions of municipal officials maintaining sanctuary rules.
“Since his first term, Donald Trump has tried different ways to coerce cities into doing the job of the federal government and carrying out federal immigration enforcement. This is the federal government coercing local officials to bend to their will or face defunding or prosecution, and that is illegal or authoritarian… We still live in a democracy under the rule of law, and the federal government needs to follow the law. Local officials have a right to do their jobs without threats or interference from the federal government,” Chiu said.
Sanctuary cities such as San Francisco restrict federal immigration enforcement cooperation, claiming that these laws foster trust and harmony among immigrant populations. If these groups do not worry about deportation, they are more inclined to work with authorities, therefore improving local public safety, proponents contend.
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Tony LoPresti, Santa Clara County Counsel, echoed Chiu’s sentiments, highlighting constitutional protections against federal overreach.
“The federal government can’t commandeer our local government. They can’t commandeer our local resources, and they can’t commandeer our local law enforcement to help them carry out a vision of mass deportation,” LoPresti said.
The complaint claims that multiple fundamental values—including the Spending Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause—have been violated by the Trump administration’s activities. It also holds the government broke the Administrative Procedure Act.
Under the Trump administration, both San Francisco and Santa Clara County have a track record of court successes over like federal policies. When the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals announced comparable restrictions placed on federal funds to be illegal, it set a noteworthy precedent.
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Along with other supporting cities including New Haven, Portland, and King County, San Francisco and Santa Clara argue that the federal funding withdrawal would seriously affect basic services including infrastructure, public safety, and healthcare. Losing this money would be “catastrophic” for the running of public services that mostly dependent on this financial support, Chiu cautioned.
LoPresti affirmed the coalition’s determination: “We litigated before, and we prevailed. We are litigating again, and we will prevail again.”
More cities and counties are anticipated to join the complaint as the legal fight progresses, so strengthening the struggle against what they consider to be an infringement on their rights to rule and safeguard their citizens.
