READ: Our new comic, Broken Stems, is a story about how California prisons tear apart families by voluntarily colluding with ICE.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice Applauds Federal Court Decision Blocking Trump’s Anti-Sanctuary Orders

April 26, 2017 News

Groups urge courts and policymakers to continue to stand up against anti-immigrant sentiments

SAN FRANCISCO – U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick issued a nationwide preliminary injunction yesterday blocking the Trump administration from carrying out provisions in a January 25th executive order that threaten to cut federal grants to local and state governments that have been deemed to be “sanctuary jurisdictions.”

Asian Americans Advancing Justice, an affiliation of five civil rights organizations, applauds this injunction in the following statement.

“This federal court decision makes clear that the Trump administration cannot hold federal funding hostage to coerce state and local governments to waste their resources and harm community trust by engaging in deportations. This is yet another blow to the administration’s shameful agenda of scapegoating and terrorizing immigrants. We stand by the families who have come to this country for a better life, and we applaud San Francisco and Santa Clara for standing up for sanctuary cities throughout the country.

‘Immigrants’ rights organizations have long said that the Tenth Amendment protects against the Federal Government forcing state and local governments to engage in immigration enforcement,’ said Aarti Kohli, Executive Director of Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus. ‘We are heartened to see that the government’s efforts to bully local law enforcement have failed. This well-reasoned ruling confirms that our local resources cannot be exploited by the Federal Government for its anti-immigrant political agenda.’

Sanctuary cities are the truest representation of American values. These policies, some of which are decades old, respect due process rights, keep immigrant families together, increase public safety, and ensure equal access and treatment to immigrant community members.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice is working towards the passage of pro-immigrant state and local policies, such as the California Values Act and the Illinois Trust Act. Not only will we defend existing Sanctuary policies, we also are advancing omnibus pro-immigrant legislation to take states and localities out of deportations to protect our families.

We call on policymakers to support passage of these pro-immigrant bills. We must take state and local governments out of being complicit with the administration’s anti-immigrant agenda. We encourage all lawmakers to be strong and fight for every community member.”

Asian Americans Advancing Justice is a national affiliation of five leading organizations advocating for the civil and human rights of Asian Americans and other underserved communities to promote a fair and equitable society for all. The affiliation’s members are: Advancing Justice – AAJC (Washington, D.C.), Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus (San Francisco), Advancing Justice – Los Angeles, Advancing Justice – Atlanta, and Advancing Justice – Chicago.