(Bloomberg) -- A coalition of 11 mostly Republican-led states urged a federal appeals court to enforce U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order punishing so-called sanctuary cities, which largely forbid local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
The group filed a joint brief last week urging the appeals court in San Francisco to reinstate a January directive in which Trump threatened broad cuts in funding for jurisdictions that don’t assist efforts to deport undocumented immigrants. The states, led by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and his Louisiana counterpart, Jeff Landry, argued sanctuary cities undermine Trump’s immigration-enforcement authority and make the country less safe.
Trump has warned that violent Latino gangs flourish in sanctuary cities, while many Democratic-led states and cities contend that cooperation with federal officials drains local resources and risks infringing citizens’ rights. The other states backing Trump in the San Francisco fight are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas.
“Sanctuary cities are a matter of public safety,” Morrisey said in a statement Wednesday. “Law enforcement officials can better protect citizens if they are capable of complying with federal immigration laws rather than having their authority limited by the establishment of sanctuary cities.”
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