A legal ruling issued at the end of February determined that the federal government has the authority to withhold federal criminal justice grant funds from jurisdictions that do not comply with U.S. immigration enforcement.

The decision came in response to a 2017 lawsuit brought by several states, including Washington, against the federal government. The state’s lawsuit was in response to the Justice Department (DOJ) decision to condition grant funds for local and state governments providing federal immigration authorities' access to jails. Additionally, DOJ requires advance notice when an individual with questionable immigration status is to be released from custody.

Prior to DOJ’s change, cities and states were only required to certify they were not preventing local law enforcement from communicating with federal authorities about the immigration status of people who were detained.

The Second Circuit concluded that statutory language included in federal grants requiring applicants to certify compliance with “all other applicable Federal laws” is broad enough to require grant applicants to comply with federal laws which prohibit any restrictions on communicating citizenship information to federal immigration authorities. The court also held that adding this additional condition doesn’t violate the Tenth Amendment or the Constitution’s Spending Clause.

However, the Second Circuit ruling is in direct conflict with previous rulings in the Seventh and Third Circuit Courts and injunctions granted in specific cases.

How this ruling will affect federal grant dollars for local law enforcement is still up in the air. If you are a recipient (or current applicant) of federal criminal justice grants, please work with your city’s legal counsel to determine if your jurisdiction may be impacted.

For additional information, please review this article written by Lisa Soronen, Executive Director of the State and Local Legal Center, and published by NLC.