Santa Clara Co. Files Brief Disputing Trump Immigration Tactics

SAN JOSE, CA — Santa Clara County filed this week a “friend of the court” brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals in the Ninth District in its assessment to deem the Trump Administration's unlawful use of power in enforcing federal grant conditions related to immigration polices the local government disagrees with.

The amicus brief was written by the county Counsel James R. Williams on behalf of 43 cities, counties and municipal agencies as well as three major associations of local governments and officials nationwide. It urges the court to uphold a permanent injunction that blocks the U.S. Department of Justice from holding hostage local grants like the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program. This is the leading source of federal grant funding for state and local law enforcement and its correctional programs, the county reported Tuesday.

“President Trump and his administration continue to make wrongheaded and unlawful decisions,” Williams said. “Threatening to withhold federal funding to coerce local communities to serve this administration’s policy goals is not only unwise, it is unconstitutional. We will keep fighting to uphold these basic principles that our nation’s founders so carefully crafted.”

The lower court concluded the federal DOJ could not lawfully mandate that state and local governments receiving these grant funds assist the federal government with immigration enforcement. The cases in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals are San Francisco v. Barr and California v. Barr.

The county’s brief argues that the nationwide injunction should be upheld because the DOJ’s illegal conditions undermine basic constitutional principles that allow local law enforcement agencies to exercise their own judgments about how best to keep their communities safe.

“Local governments must have the flexibility to adopt the law enforcement policies that are right for their communities. Local law enforcement officials here and around the country have adopted policies that keep immigrants out of the shadows, protect their right to due process and make our entire community safer,” Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese said.

"Hundreds of cities and counties around the country and across the political spectrum have decided that to enhance the safety and well-being of their communities they will limit local involvement in immigration enforcement," the brief states.

There was a distinct strategy in the feds' alleged coercion according to the brief.

"Barred from withholding all federal funds from states and localities that choose not to devote their resources to immigration enforcement, the Attorney General (Barr) shifted to a grant-by-grant approach," it explains to the targeting of the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant.

The cities, counties, and national organizations that joined Santa Clara County in the filing include:

• Alameda County
• Albany, Calif.
• Albuquerque, N.M.
• Baltimore, Md.
• Berkeley, Calif.
• Boulder, Colo.
• Burlington, Vt.
• Cambridge, Mass.
• Chelsea, Mass.
• Chicago, Ill.
• Chula Vista, Calif.
• Contra Costa County
• Davis, Calif.
• Dayton, Ohio
• Denver, Colo.
• International City/County Management Association
• International Municipal Lawyers Association
• Iowa City, Iowa
• Ithaca, N.Y.
• King County
• Lawrence, Mass.
• Los Angeles (city and county)
• Madison, Wisc.
• Metropolitan Area Planning Council
• Minneapolis, Minn.
• Monterey County
• Morgan Hill, Calif.
• National League of Cities
• New York City, N.Y.
• Northampton, Mass.
• Oakland, Calif.
• Philadelphia, Penn.
• Portland, Ore.
• Providence. R.I.
• Sacramento, Calif.
• Salinas, Calif.
• San Jose, Calif.
• Santa Ana, Calif.
• Santa Cruz County
• Santa Fe (city and county)
• Seattle, Wash.
• Somerville, Mass.
• Tucson, Ariz.

The brief may be read here.