US cities, counties challenge Trump's 'sanctuary' city crackdown

By Nate Raymond and Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) -A coalition of U.S. cities and counties on Friday filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's executive order seeking to force so-called sanctuary jurisdictions to cooperate with his immigration crackdown and mass deportations.

Cities and counties led by San Francisco and the county of Santa Clara, California, said in a lawsuit in California federal court that the Republican president's administration was unlawfully trying to force local officials to cooperate by threatening them with a loss of funding and prosecution.

"This is the federal government coercing local officials to bend to their will or face defunding or prosecution," San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, a Democrat, said in a statement. "That is illegal and authoritarian."

Other local governments that joined the lawsuit included Portland, Oregon; New Haven, Connecticut; and King County, Washington. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco.

The lawsuit came a day after the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state of Illinois and city of Chicago, alleging the Democratic strongholds were unlawfully interfering with Trump's crackdown and seeking a court order blocking so-called sanctuary laws.

Sanctuary laws prevent state and local law enforcement from assisting federal civil immigration officers.

Supporters of such laws have said that cooperation with federal immigration enforcement would discourage immigrants who are living in the country illegally from coming forward as victims or witnesses to crimes.

Friday's lawsuit challenged an executive order Trump signed that threatened to cut off federal funding to sanctuary jurisdictions that limit or refuse to cooperate with federal immigration law enforcement, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The lawsuit also challenged memos from the Department of Justice, including one on February 5 from newly confirmed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, that instructed prosecutors to investigate state and local officials who impede or obstruct immigration enforcement.

In a statement, Justice Department spokesperson Gates McGavick said "the days of flouting federal law without consequence ended the second President Trump was sworn back into office."

"Sanctuary jurisdictions are actively impeding law enforcement and prioritizing illegal aliens over their own citizens," McGavick said.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York;Editing by Noeleen Walder and Rosalba O'Brien)