A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration exceeded its authority when it withheld a 2017 public safety grant from Los Angeles over its refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, reports Courthouse News Service. U.S. District Judge Manuel Real granted Los Angeles’ motion for a preliminary injunction, finding the authority granted to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to shape restrictions for grant recipients is “limited.” L.A. receives about $1 million each year from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, which pays for local prosecutors and anti-gang programs. Trump’s Justice Department told L.A. that to receive funding, it needed to comply with federal immigration policies – including allowing immigration agents into correctional facilities to check on the status of inmates and informing the government 48 hours before an immigrant is released from local custody.
Real said Sessions is authorized to determine the “form” of the Byrne JAG grant application and require certain record-keeping and assessment protocols. “The language of the statutes gives no indication that DOJ is authorized to add civil immigration conditions to those just mentioned,” Real wrote, adding Congress did not “grant the attorney general the authority to impose conditions that require states or local governments to assist in immigration enforcement, nor to deny funds to states or local governments for the failure to comply with those conditions.” Attorneys for Los Angeles argued agreeing to the Justice Department’s conditions would compromise longstanding policy of not involving local police in immigration enforcement practices, which they said leads to a deterioration of trust between police and communities. Agreeing, Real cited a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in a similar case, which said some localities “may see such cooperation as impeding the community relationships necessary to identify and solve crimes.”