Page 4 - ARUBA TODAY

A4 U.S. NEWS
Tuesday 23 May 2017
Trump seeks reconsideration of sanctuary cities ruling

SUDHIN THANAWALA bases upon which the ing. The judge rejected ing approved by Congress. not just three U.S. Depart-
SADIE GURMAN court relied” in arriving at the claim that the execu- Orrick cited Trump’s ref- ment of Justice and Home-
Associated Press its decision to block the or- tive order applies only to erence to the order as a land Security grants as gov-
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — der. a relatively small pot of “weapon” as evidence ernment attorneys argued.
The Trump administration And he raised concerns
filed court papers Monday that the specific immigra-
aimed at getting a judge to tion law the administration
reconsider his ruling block- cited could be construed
ing the president’s execu- to require cities to comply
tive order to cut funding with requests by U.S. au-
from sanctuary cities that thorities to keep people in
limit cooperation with U.S. custody while they await
immigration authorities. deportation.
The U.S. Department of David Levine, a professor
Justice asked U.S. District at the University of Califor-
Court Judge William Orrick nia, Hastings College of the
for permission to file docu- Law who has followed the
ments asking the judge to case,
reconsider or clarify his rul- said the attorney gener-
ing in light of a new memo al’s memo seems to raise
by Attorney General the same arguments the
Jeff Sessions. administration previously
The memo, also issued made.
Monday, reasserts the de- “Judge Orrick’s response
partment’s position that to the prior argument was
Trump’s executive order that it was contrary to the
applies to a relatively small plain text of the executive
amount of money, order,” he said.
specifically grants that re- “I don’t see why he would
quire localities to comply respond any differently to
with a specific immigration this new memorandum.”
law related to information- This April 18, 2017 file photo shows Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Justice Department in Orrick’s ruling temporar-
Washington.
sharing among police and Associated Press ily halted Trump’s order in
federal immigration au- relation to two lawsuits —
thorities. Orrick appeared to ad- money and said President that the administration in- one brought by the city of
The DOJ said the memo dress the administration’s Donald Trump cannot set tended to cut off a broad San Francisco, the other by
“contradicts many of the arguments in his April rul- new conditions on spend- swath of federal funding, Santa Clara County.
The president called the
ruling “ridiculous” and
vowed to take the fight to
the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Monday’s memo, Ses-
sions said the Justice De-
partment may still try to put
more stringent conditions
on the money it doles out
and “may seek to tailor
grants to promote a lawful
system of immigration.”
Justice Department offi-
cials have suggested they
could look for ways to
keep federal grant money
from cities that decline re-
quests from immigration
officials to detain people
while they await deporta-
tion — or to reward cities
that do cooperate.
San Francisco City Attor-
ney Dennis Herrera said the
memo “doesn’t change
the constitutional problems
of the executive order.”
“That order tried to take
away all federal funding
from sanctuary cities, and
we can’t trust this admin-
istration not to make good
on its threats,” he said.q