Bay Area counties sue Trump administration over cutting federal funding for sanctuary cities

SAN FRANCISCO (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - San Francisco and Santa Clara Counties are teaming up to sue the Trump Administration.

The two counties say the president's recently signed order cutting federal funding for so called sanctuary cities and counties violates federal and state law.

This past week, President Donald Trump announced plans to strip federal funding from communties who offer safe have to undocumented immigrants.

They're known as sanctuary cities, and San Francisco is among them.

On Saturday, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu announced he's among those who will now sue the president over his order.

San Francisco's sanctuary laws have been in place since 1989.

"Sanctuary policies prioritize using our scarce local law enforcement resources to actually fight crime not do the job of the federal government," Chiu explained.

Santa Clara County is the co-lead in the case, and is part of a coaltion of cities and counties that could lose billions under the president's new plan.

"The federal government cant weaponize federal funding to bully us away from that commitment to trust and security," said Tony LoPresti, counsel for Santa Clara County.

Chiu said the president's order is illegal, saying Trump doesn't have the power to cut those funds, or the power to tell cities they must assist in federal immigration actions

One neighbor heard about the legal action, but said they don't believe the country should be spending so much money on deportation.

"You know, because they came here and they should be able to be here," the neighbor expressed.

The City Attorney's Office says there's alot at stake here, oting that san francisco recieves about 3.1 billion in federal funding that helps pay for a broad range of programs, from healthcare to infastructure.

"San Francisco, on our own...we receive billions of dollars of federal funding. This would be catastrophic to our city, to the services that we need to provide to our community," Chiu shared.

The group also said it's not the first time they've had to have this fight.

"During the first Trump administration, San Francisco and Santa Clara sued the federal government after the administration attempted to withhold federal funds from the city based on its sanctuary policies, like it is trying to do today, and we won," Chiu also shared.