Torrez says that, by continuing to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the counties are imposing “serious costs on local communities.” Deputies who are assigned to help assist ICE, for instance, are no longer available for criminal investigations and emergency calls—tasks that the attorney general describes as being “the core mission of local law enforcement.”
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican, said that his office is suing in an effort to protect children from the dangers “posed by expanded access to marijuana.”
A spokesperson for Melania Trump has since said that the First Lady “is proud to continue standing up to, and fighting against, those who spread malicious and defamatory falsehoods as they desperately try to get undeserved attention and money from their unlawful conduct.”
“Under our Constitution, states are the primary regulators and administrators of elections for federal office, unless Congress passes legislation that preempts that framework,” one of the judges wrote. “And Congress’s power to do even that is itself subject to limitations.”
“The Fund is stunningly, blindingly illegal, and the defendants must be prohibited from transferring money to this corrupt and illegal monstrosity,” the lawsuit says.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul argued that these changes could worsen existing shortages of critical health care workers by making it more difficult for many students to afford getting an education.
In a statement, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin said that the settlement is little more than a slush fund for the president’s “private militia of insurrectionists, rioters, and white supremacists […] and sycophant accomplices to his election-stealing schemes.”
The lawsuit also takes issue with Albuquerque’s Safer Community Places Ordinance. Among other things, the ordinance’s provisions prohibit ICE from conducting immigration-enforcement operations on city property. It also requires businesses to take certain steps to make it harder for ICE to enter employees-only areas.
“Require biometrics, refuse to collect them, then punish people for the gap you created,” Michelle Mendez of the National Immigration Projectsaid. “That’s not administration; that’s a trap. A deliberately broken process they’re now citing as proof that people eligible for benefits and protections deserve to be deported. We’re asking the court to see this scheme for exactly what it is.”
Earlier this year, the federal government said that it would no longer process immigration applications submitted by citizens of at least 75 countries, including Afghanistan, Russia, and Rwanda. Immigrants from some countries on the list—Iran, Iraq, and Libya, among others—face additional restrictions.