Crime & Law
Federal Judge Allows Chicago to Join Lawsuit to Stop Trump from Yanking Funding Sanctuary Cities
The Chicago skyline. (Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
A federal judge allowed Chicago to join a lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration from yanking funding from cities and counties across the country because they have laws designed to protect undocumented immigrants by prohibiting state local law enforcement officials from helping federal agents.
U.S. District Judge William Orrick agreed Aug. 5 to allow Chicago and 33 other cities and counties, including Los Angeles, Denver, Boston and Baltimore, to join the lawsuit that claimed the Trump administration was unlawfully trying to force local officials to help federal immigration agents conduct deportation efforts.
“The city is pleased that the court has allowed Chicago and 33 other jurisdictions to join the lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s efforts to punish local governments that decline to enforce the administration’s civil immigration policy priorities,” according to a statement from a spokesperson for the Chicago Department of Law.
San Francisco officials filed the original lawsuit on behalf of nine California cities and counties, including Oakland and San Diego, as well as Seattle, Minneapolis, St. Paul and Santa Fe.
In March, Orrick blocked the administration from stripping those cities of any funding, blocking the enforcement of an executive order designed to punish self-proclaimed sanctuary cities.
“The cities and counties have also demonstrated a likelihood of irreparable harm,” Orrick wrote. “The threat to withhold funding causes them irreparable injury in the form of budgetary uncertainty, deprivation of constitutional rights, and undermining trust between the cities and counties and the communities they serve.”
That order does not apply to Chicago but is likely to bolster efforts by city officials to prevent President Donald Trump from blowing a $3 billion hole in Chicago’s budget.
Lawyers representing Chicago will ask Orrick to expand his preliminary injunction to include the 34 new plaintiffs at a hearing set for Wednesday, records show.
A federal judge tossed a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration that sought to invalidate Chicago’s Welcoming City ordinance and the Illinois Trust Act because they are “an intentional effort to obstruct the federal government’s enforcement of federal immigration law and to impede consultation and communication between federal, state, and local law enforcement officials that is necessary for federal officials to carry out federal immigration law and keep Americans safe,” according to the lawsuit.
U.S. District Court Judge Lindsay Jenkins’ decision to grant Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s request to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice without holding a full trial is a major win for officials seeking to prevent federal officials from slashing billions of dollars in federal aid to Chicago and Illinois.
Forcing Chicago and Illinois law enforcement officials to help federal agents conduct deportation operations is unconstitutional, Jenkins ruled.
Johnson and Pritzker have repeatedly said Chicago and Illinois will continue to prohibit local and state law enforcement agents from helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deport undocumented residents unless they have been convicted of a crime.
Chicago expects to receive approximately $3.5 billion in new and existing federal grant dollars in 2025, officials said. The city’s 2025 budget is $17.1 billion.
In addition, the CTA expects to receive $1.9 billion from the federal government to extend the Red Line south to 130th Street and CPS received $1.3 billion from the federal government during the 2024-25 fiscal year.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
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