Judge bars federal funding cuts to 'sanctuary' states

For now, Trump can't tie disaster relief and anti-terrorism aid to immigration policies.

- BY KEVIN RECTOR

COMMUNITY members celebrate the Army Corps of Engineers finishing debris cleanup in the Palisades at a news conference in August.

(JASON ARMOND Los Angeles Times)

A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily halted a Trump administration plan to reduce disaster relief and anti-terrorism funding for states with so-called sanctuary policies for undocumented immigrants.

U.S. District Judge Mary S. McElroy granted the temporary restraining order curtailing the cuts at the request of California, 10 other states and the District of Columbia, which argued in a lawsuit Monday that the policy appeared to have illegally cost them hundreds of millions of dollars.

The states said they were first notified of the cuts over the weekend. McElroy made her decision during an emergency hearing on the states' motion in Rhode Island District Court on Tuesday afternoon.

California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta cheered the decision as the state's latest win in pushing back against what he described as a series of unlawful, funding-related power grabs by the Trump administration.