Justice Department: Reconsider ruling on sanctuary cities

SAN FRANCISCO — The Trump administration filed court papers Monday aimed at getting a judge to reconsider his ruling blocking the president’s executive order to cut funding from sanctuary cities that limit cooperation with U.S. immigration authorities.

The U.S. Department of Justice asked U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick for permission to file documents asking the judge to reconsider or clarify his ruling in light of a new memo by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The memo, also issued Monday, reasserts the department’s position that Trump’s executive order applies to a relatively small amount of money, specifically grants that require localities to comply with a specific immigration law related to information-sharing among police and federal immigration authorities.

The DOJ said the memo “contradicts many of the bases upon which the court relied” in arriving at its decision to block the order.

Orrick appeared to address the administration’s arguments in his April ruling. The judge rejected the claim that the executive order applies only to a relatively small pot of money and said President Donald Trump cannot set new conditions on spending approved by Congress.

Orrick cited Trump’s reference to the order as a “weapon” as evidence that the administration intended to cut off a broad swath of federal funding, not just three U.S. Department of Justice and Homeland Security grants as government attorneys argued. And he raised concerns that the specific immigration law the administration cited could be construed to require cities to comply with requests by U.S. authorities to keep people in custody while they await deportation.