A federal judge has barred the Trump administration from withholding funds from 34 “sanctuary cities” and counties that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, in a ruling that widens an earlier order.
The decision, issued on Friday by Judge William Orrick in San Francisco, extends protections to major cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Denver and Albuquerque. Orrick, an appointee of Barack Obama, had previously ruled it unconstitutional for the administration to freeze funding for jurisdictions with sanctuary policies, siding with cities such as San Francisco, Sacramento, Minneapolis and Seattle that had challenged President Trump’s executive orders.
Those cities argued that the orders, signed in January and February, amounted to an unlawful use of executive power and violated constitutional protections. The administration maintains that the federal government should not be compelled to subsidise local policies that obstruct immigration enforcement.
The confrontation has intensified in recent weeks. The administration has already deployed national guard troops to Los Angeles and Washington DC under a law-and-order directive. On Friday, Trump said Chicago was likely to be the next target, adding that New York would also come under increased scrutiny.
“I think Chicago will be our next,” the president told reporters at the White House. “And then we’ll help with New York.”
Figures published on Saturday by Axios show that the number of people in immigration detention has risen by more than 50% since Trump’s inauguration, reaching a record 60,000, around 21,000 more than at the end of the Biden administration.
Separately, the attorney general, Pam Bondi, issued letters last week to 30 Democrat-led states and cities threatening further action if they did not abandon their sanctuary policies. Governors of California, Illinois and Minnesota, along with the mayors of New York, Denver and Boston, were among those warned that their jurisdictions were obstructing federal immigration enforcement.
“This ends now,” Bondi wrote.
Democratic leaders dismissed the threats. Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, described Bondi’s actions as “some kind of misguided political agenda” that was “fundamentally inconsistent with our founding principles as a nation”.
The Pentagon has meanwhile ordered 2,000 national guard troops in Washington to be armed. Officials told NBC News that defence secretary Pete Hegseth had authorised guardsmen assisting local law enforcement to carry weapons, though those engaged in non-enforcement roles would not.
“The mission to lower the crime rate in our nation’s capital will soon see troops deployed with their service weapons, consistent with their mission and training,” one official said.
