United States District Judge Lindsay Jenkins said the lawsuit, filed by the Trump administration against the state of Illinois, would encroach upon states’ autonomy.
The judge cited the principles of “dual sovereignty,” determining it was “impossible to ignore the state sovereignty concerns” that would arise if the Trump administration’s policy overtook state and local rules.
She also said the effort was an “end-run around the Tenth Amendment,” which protects states from any federal government overreach.
Illinois passed a law in 2021 prohibiting local or state officials from sharing a person’s custody status, release date, or contact information with federal immigration officials. The Justice Department believes federal law overrides that law and other sanctuary policies, but Jenkins disagreed.
Several large cities run by Democrats have refused to assist the federal government in their immigration efforts in the past, earning the moniker “sanctuary cities” for harboring illegal immigrants.
Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco are among the “sanctuary” cities.
The Trump administration has targeted cities for their sanctuary policies, hoping to force them to relent and assist with their mass deportation effort. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Thursday that the Department of Justice would sue New York City Mayor Eric Adams over the city’s sanctuary policies after an off-duty Border Patrol officer was shot during an attempted robbery.
“The Department of Justice is suing New York City and Mayor Eric Adams for continuing to obstruct law enforcement with sanctuary city policies. If New York’s leaders won’t step up to protect their citizens, we will,” she wrote in a post on X.
The DOJ tried to include Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) in their case against Illinois, but the judge dismissed him as she found no legal basis for his inclusion.
Pritzker has been antagonistic to the Trump administration’s immigration efforts.
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“I’m aware that the president and Tom Homan have been targeting the city of Chicago in particular,” he said this week.
“When you’re attacking the people who live here — many people who have been here for decades, paying taxes, law-abiding, raising their children, good members of their community — when you’re attacking those people in my state, I don’t want you here,” he added.
