Yahoo News Donald Trump's immigration policy suffers another setback as judge blocks immigration order on 'sanctuary cities'
An American judge has blocked Donald Trump's executive order seeking to withhold government funding from so-called sanctuary cities, in another legal blow to the administration's immigration priorities.
In his ruling, Judge William H Orrick sided the Santa Clara county, the city of San Francisco and other jurisdictions, who argued that taking away this funding could be unconstitutional.
He ruled that the counties and cities that challenged the law had shown they could face "immediate irreparable harm" if the policy were allowed to be put into place, and that their constitutional challenge could succeed once the case is fully heard.
In making the ruling apply across the country Mr Orrick has prevented the government from acting on a critical part of Mr Trump's January executive order that punished cities who fail to use municipal funds or resources to advance the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, told reporters the administration was taking action to appeal the ruling, adding: "The idea that an agency can't put in some reasonable restrictions on how some of these monies are spent is something that will be overturned eventually."
"It's the 9th Circuit going bananas," Mr Priebus said, referring to the West Coast judicial district where the judge ruled. "We'll win at the Supreme Court level at some point."
A formal White House statement on the ruling was withering in its criticism of Mr Orrick, saying "an unelected judge unilaterally rewrote immigration policy for our nation" and handed "a gift to the criminal gang and cartel element in our country."
"This case is yet one more example of egregious overreach by a single, unelected district judge," the White House said.
The US justice department said in a statement it would follow existing federal law with respect to sanctuary jurisdictions, as well as enforce conditions tied to federal grants.
America is home to some 11 million undocumented immigrants according to recent studies. Analysts have said they form a significant part of the labour force.
The Trump administration suffered an earlier defeat in the courts when two federal judges suspended executive orders that would have prevented travellers from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.
The government has appealed those decisions.
Dave Cortese, president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, said in a statement after Mr Orrick's ruling that: "The politics of fear emanating from the Trump White House has just suffered a major setback."
Timeline | Donald Trump's travel ban
