The Trump administration can tip the scales in federal police funding in favor of cities that cooperate with immigration agents and let them into local jails, a divided U.S. appeals court ruled Friday in a case with implications for sanctuary cities like San Francisco.
Grants under the government’s Community Oriented Policing Services program, or COPS, had been awarded since 1994, mostly to cities looking to expand their police foot patrols. In 2017, when COPS grants totaled $98.5 million nationwide, the Trump administration said that for certain categories of grants it would give preference to local governments that agreed to give immigration agents access to jails where undocumented immigrants were held on local charges and to notify federal agents when an immigrant was due to be released.
After unsuccessfully applying for a grant, Los Angeles filed suit and won a ruling from a federal judge that the COPS program did not authorize bidding preferences for aiding in immigration enforcement.
