A US
judge has blocked President Donald Trump's executive order that sought to
withhold federal funds from so-called sanctuary cities, dealing another legal
blow to the administration's efforts to toughen immigration enforcement.Sanctuary
cities generally offer safe harbor to illegal immigrants and often do not use
municipal funds or resources to advance the enforcement of federal immigration
laws.The ruling from US District Judge William Orrick III in San Francisco said
Mr Trump's January 25 order targeted broad categories of federal funding for
sanctuary governments and that plaintiffs challenging the order were likely to
succeed in proving it unconstitutional.Dozens of local governments and cities,
including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, have joined the growing
"sanctuary" movement.Meanwhile, the looming threat of a US Government
shutdown this weekend has appeared to recede after Mr Trump backed away from a
demand that Congress include funding for his planned border wall with Mexico in
a spending bill.The spending bill must pass by the end of the week to avoid a
US Government shutdown. Mr Trump removed a crucial sticking point when he said
on Monday evening (local time) he may wait until Republicans begin drafting the
budget blueprint for the fiscal year that starts on October 1 to seek funds for
the wall.However, Senate majority Leader Mitch McConnell said it was too soon
to talk about such a possibility and that negotiations were still underway to
reach a longer-term deal.But Democrat senator Chuck Schumer said progress had
been made with regards to the spending bill now that Mr Trump's wall demands —
which could cost upwards of $66 billion — had been put on hold.
Comments
Post a Comment