Paul Bass file photo
Another 11 cities and counties — mostly from the West Coast — have joined New Haven’s lawsuit against the Trump administration to protect their sanctuary status for undocumented immigrants.
That’s according to an amended complaint submitted Thursday evening by San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu. The lawsuit challenges an executive order issued by President Donald Trump and accompanying Department of Justice (DOJ) memos instructing the DOJ to pause and possibly cancel funds for cities with “sanctuary” protections for immigrants.
New Haven, along with four West Coast municipalities, including San Francisco and Portland, joined the initial lawsuit filed in federal court in Northern California on Feb. 7. At the time, Mayor Justin Elicker predicted that other jurisdictions would join the suit “in the coming days and months.”
That prediction has borne fruit, with San Diego, Minneapolis, Seattle, and a host of other California municipalities signing on Thursday evening (see the full list below). The amended filing claims the plaintiffs represent close to 10 million people, though New Haven is notably still the only plaintiff from the Northeast.
New Haven operates under a “Welcoming City” executive order that Mayor Justin Elicker signed in 2020. That order prohibits city employees from inquiring about someone’s immigration status, disclosing confidential information, or using city resources to assist in an investigation unless compelled by state or federal law. The city also does not coordinate with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (ICE). In preparation for the Trump administration, all city employees were retrained on the order.
In recent months New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson has also highlighted the department’s longstanding policy of not asking about immigration status, saying he wants residents to call the police “no matter what your immigration status is.”
Read the updated complaint here and the original here. Both versions challenge the executive order on the grounds it is attempting to “commandeer” city workers to assist in federal immigration enforcement in violation of the 10th Amendment. Defenders of the Trump administration’s orders centralizing power with the presidency have promoted the so-called“unitary executive theory,” which interprets the Constitution in such a way to bolster the president’s control over the shape, administration, and direction of government.
The amended complaint also includes more information on the threat city leaders see losing DOJ funding could pose to the city. Elicker has criticized Trump’s executive order, titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” as an “unprecedented attack” on New Haven that could seriously hamper the city’s policing efforts.
According to the lawsuit, the city has received more than $6.4 million in DOJ grants in recent years, including money for the Office of Violence Prevention and the COMPASS crisis response team, both of which are backed by $2 million in federal grants. City spokesperson Lenny Speiller told the Independent that as of Thursday, no DOJ grants have been frozen.
The new filing warns that if the DOJ chooses to withhold those funds, New Haven “would be forced to choose between ending the programs or backfilling the lost funds through a combination of increased taxes and position eliminations.”
The lawsuit also claims that uncertainty surrounding federal funds could threaten the stability of the city’s finances during the budget process, which will begin later today with Elicker unveiling his proposed budget for fiscal year 2025 – 26.
Ultimately, the lawsuit says that “homeowners would bear a significant burden in making up for lost grants by increased property taxes,” and that any funding cuts would leave New Haven “severely limited in its ability to support its police department.”
The plaintiffs in this lawsuit now include:
• San Francisco, California
• Santa Clara County, California
• Portland, Oregon
• Martin Luther King, Jr. County, Washington
• New Haven, Connecticut
• Oakland, California
• Emeryville, California
• San Jose, California
• San Diego, California
• Sacramento, California
• Santa Cruz, California
• Monterey, California
• Seattle, Washington
• Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Saint Paul, Minnesota
• Santa Fe, New Mexico