In most cases, courts chipped away at the crackdown that escalated in November 2017...saying those policies may violate federal law.
Of those 29 jurisdictions ... only Oregon has yet to be cleared to receive the grants from 2017, a Justice Department spokesman told The Associated Press this week....
"State and local law enforcement agencies already are stretched thin, and withholding these federal grants only makes their work more difficult," Leahy said in an email to the AP. "It's unthinkable that the Trump Justice Department would hold these funds hostage over an unrelated dispute on immigration policy."
Last summer, the U.S. Conference of Mayors sued in Illinois on behalf of its member cities focusing on the issue. In September, a federal court temporarily blocked the Justice Department from withholding the funds for the jurisdictions represented by the conference.
...Similar cases are being litigated across the country, and the Justice Department is considering appealing some unfavorable rulings.
The Trump administration has long argued that places that don't cooperate with federal immigration authorities, often called "sanctuary cities," pose a threat to public safety.
"I continue to urge all jurisdictions under review to reconsider policies that place the safety of their communities and their residents at risk," Sessions said in a statement in January 2018. "Protecting criminal aliens from federal immigration authorities defies common sense and undermines the rule of law."
The details differ by jurisdiction, but the Justice Department felt law enforcement agencies in those communities weren't sufficiently committing themselves to cooperating with federal immigration agents when officers came in contact with people who might not be in the country legally...
Some, but not all, of the 28 jurisdictions were cleared for the grants without changing the policies that triggered the original concern from the Justice Department, now led by Attorney General William Barr. And not all of the places actually have the money in hand yet, or have been told they've been cleared to get it....
"So no funds (were) lost on our end," said police Sgt. David Lefont, noting the total was less than $100,000.
That some of the threatened cities ended up changing their policies amounts to at least a partial victory for the Trump administration, said Jessica Vaughan, the director of policy studies for the Center For Immigration Studies, which advocates for tight restrictions on immigration.
"What it looks like to me, the Trump Administration is not able to fully enforce cooperation with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to the extent they would like to, but it is able to fully enforce compliance with existing federal law that some sanctuary jurisdictions have had to change their policies in order to get their money," Vaughan said.
...Even before the 2017 letters were sent, federal courts across the country had begun to rule against the Trump administration's efforts. And they continue.
A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled Feb. 15 that the Justice Department exceeded its authority and ordered a permanent, nationwide injunction against requiring police departments to cooperate with immigration authorities in order to receive the grants.
Oregon, the only one of the 29 jurisdictions not yet cleared for the 2017 grants, last fall filed its own lawsuit against the Justice Department. The lawsuit, which also covers grants for 2018, accused Trump and Matthew Whitaker, acting attorney general at the time, of trying to "impermissibly commandeer the resources" of Oregon and its largest city, Portland.
"For years, these grants have provided millions of dollars to law enforcement in Oregon," Rosenblum said in November. "But, suddenly these public safety funds have been withdrawn because Oregon will not submit to U.S. DOJ's demand that Oregon participate in its immigration enforcement efforts."
-- The Associated Press
