Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and dozens of cities won a new court injunction prohibiting the Trump administration from defunding local governments that refuse to work with federal immigration enforcement, adding to the existing block won by San Francisco in April.
Judge William H. Orrick of the US District Court for the Northern District of California in a ruling Friday said he was extending the injunction given that the administration had offered no opposition except to say that Orrick’s first order in April was incorrect.
“Consequently, I will grant the plaintiffs’ request for the expanded Preliminary Injunction for the same reasons that I issued the Preliminary Injunction originally,” Orrick wrote, noting also that the original order is currently on appeal.
The administration made a crack down on so-called “sanctuary cities” one of its first priorities early this year. Santa Clara and San Francisco with their initial lawsuit sought to block the enforcement of an executive order to defund sanctuary cities, and Department of Justice memos directing the prosecution of state and local officials who don’t assist federal immigration enforcement.
Orrick used Friday’s order to clarify that his original injunction extends to certain grants—the Continuum of Care and the Community Development Block Grant—administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The judge had already granted a preliminary injunction order to San Francisco and a group of other cities and counties before dozens of new jurisdictions joined the suit earlier this month.
The first order from April said the cities are likely to prevail on their claims that the Trump administration’s threats to defund “sanctuary cities” is unconstitutional. The judge added that federal agencies may not rescind federal money to the cities on the condition that they comply with Trump’s immigration enforcement executive orders.
The cities sought a second preliminary injunction to include the additional cities and to prevent any new Trump executive orders that could skirt Orrick’s first injunction.
The case mirrors a nearly identical one under the first Trump administration when San Francisco sued over a similar sanctuary city policy. In that earlier case, Orrick granted the city’s preliminary injunction and eventually entered a permanent injunction against the administration.
The case is City and County of San Francisco v. Trump, N.D. Cal., No. 3:25-cv-01350, 8/22/25.
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