Asian Americans Advancing Justice Applauds Federal Court Decision Blocking Trump’s Anti-Sanctuary Orders
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Washington, DC – U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick issued a nationwide preliminary injunction yesterday blocking the Trump administration from carrying out provisions in a January 25th executive order that threaten to cut federal grants to local and state governments that have been deemed to be “sanctuary jurisdictions.”
Asian Americans Advancing Justice, an affiliation of five civil rights organizations, applauds this injunction in the following statement.
“This federal court decision makes clear that the Trump administration cannot hold federal funding hostage to coerce state and local governments to waste their resources and harm community trust by engaging in deportations. This is yet another blow to the administration’s shameful agenda of scapegoating and terrorizing immigrants. We stand by the families who have come to this country for a better life, and we applaud San Francisco and Santa Clara for standing up for sanctuary cities throughout the country.
Immigrants’ rights organizations have long said that the Tenth Amendment protects against the Federal Government forcing state and local governments to engage in immigration enforcement. We are heartened to see that the government’s efforts to bully local law enforcement have failed. This well-reasoned ruling confirms that our local resources cannot be exploited by the Federal Government for its anti-immigrant political agenda.
Sanctuary cities are the truest representation of American values. These policies, some of which are decades old, respect due process rights, keep immigrant families together, increase public safety, and ensure equal access and treatment to immigrant community members.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice is working towards the passage of pro-immigrant state and local policies, such as the California Values Act and the Illinois Trust Act. Not only will we defend existing Sanctuary policies, we also are advancing omnibus pro-immigrant legislation to take states and localities out of deportations to protect our families.
We call on policymakers to support passage of these pro-immigrant bills. We must take state and local governments out of being complicit with the administration’s anti-immigrant agenda. We encourage all lawmakers to be strong and fight for every community member.”
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