Politics
Federal Judge Blocks Trump From Yanking Funding From Chicago Over Immigrant Protections
The Chicago skyline. (Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from yanking funding from Chicago and 33 other cities and counties because they have laws designed to protect undocumented immigrants by prohibiting state and local law enforcement officials from helping federal agents.
U.S. District Judge William Orrick issued an injunction late Friday that will prevent the Trump administration from blocking funding for some of the nation’s largest cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, Boston and Baltimore.
Orrick ruled for a second time that the cities and counties were likely to prevail in the lawsuit that claimed the Trump administration was unlawfully trying to force local officials to help federal immigration agents conduct deportation efforts.
The Trump administration has already appealed the initial injunction issued by Orrick in April in the initial lawsuit brought by San Francisco officials on behalf of nine California cities and counties, including Oakland and San Diego, as well as Seattle, Minneapolis, St. Paul and Santa Fe.
Orrick agreed Aug. 5 to allow an additional 34 cities and counties to join the lawsuit.
“The cities and counties have also demonstrated a likelihood of irreparable harm,” Orrick wrote in the initial injunction. “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.”
Orrick specifically blocked the Trump administration from withholding Community Development Block Grants, which fund a wide range of efforts including programs to boost economic development, according to city records.
Orrick also blocked the Trump administration from canceling grants to the cities and counties awarded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through the Continuum of Care program, which is designed to reduce homelessness.
“As we have maintained for the past two years, Chicago follows all local, state, and federal laws and we will continue to defend our immigrant communities and the rights of all Chicagoans against federal overreach," Johnson said in a statement. “This ruling is another affirmation of our position. The city of Chicago will not cower in the face of federal threats.”
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 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.
In a separate case, U.S. District Court Judge Brendan Hurson blocked efforts by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to change the way the Affordable Care Act is implemented in case brought by Chicago, Baltimore and the city of Columbus, Ohio.
“This ruling will continue to help our residents obtain reasonably priced health insurance and reduce the burden on our health clinics to provide free care,” Johnson said in a statement from Democracy Forward, a group that helped bring the lawsuit. “Here in Chicago, we will continue our efforts to ensure that all residents, no matter their zip code or income, can have access to safe, affordable, and quality healthcare.”
The lawsuit claims the Trump administration’s new rule “unlawfully imposes new fees, weakens coverage standards, and creates barriers that would make it harder — and in some cases impossible — for people to get and keep affordable health insurance,” according to Democracy Forward.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
