Seattle Sues Trump Over His Threat To Defund Sanctuary Cities

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By Will Racke

Seattle is suing the Trump administration over its plan to withhold funds from sanctuary cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

The city filed a lawsuit in federal district court Wednesday aimed at declaring President Donald Trump’s executive order on stepped-up immigration enforcement unconstitutional.

“Our lawsuit is staying true to our values,” Seattle Mayor and city attorney Ed Murray said at a news conference. “We value civil rights, we value the courts and we value the Constitution.”

Seattle’s lawsuit, one of many legal responses expected of major sanctuary jurisdictions, comes three days after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the Department of Justice would pull federal grants from cities and counties that refuse to assist the administration in detaining and deporting criminal aliens. (RELATED: Sessions: The DOJ Will Take All Lawful Steps To ‘Claw Back’ Funds From Sanctuary Cities)

Trump wrote in his January executive order that sanctuary jurisdictions “willfully violate Federal law” and have caused “immeasurable harm to the American people and to the very fabric of our republic.” The order instructs the attorney general and the secretary of homeland security to cancel federal grants to cities that don’t cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Seattle expects to receive more than $150 million in federal funds this year, including $2.6 million in DOJ grants, the Seattle Times reported. Murray says the city will gladly give up federal money to continue its policy of prohibiting municipal employees from asking about a person’s immigration status, unless required by law or court order.

Sanctuary policy has become the main point of dispute between the federal government and Democratic-controlled cities resisting the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. The Department of Homeland Security now releases weekly reports naming local jurisdictions that refuse to honor federal immigration detainers and that have “enacted policies which limit cooperation with ICE.” (RELATED: Chicago To Keep Sanctuary Status Despite Sessions’ Promise To Pull Funding)

Seattle and San Francisco have argued that Trump’s order violates the 10th Amendment by compelling local governments to enforce federal immigration law. Seattle’s lawsuit also asserts that the directive violates the Constitution’s Taxing and Spending Clause by holding funds that aren’t directly related to immigration enforcement, the Seattle Times reported.

In addition to Trump, Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly are named as defendants in the suit.