By Jan Wolfe
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department that accused the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago of unlawfully interfering with President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins in Chicago was a setback for Trump’s litigation campaign against local “sanctuary” laws that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
White House and Justice Department spokespersons did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump, a Republican seeking to deport millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally, has sparred with Chicago and other Democratic strongholds over their policies.
Democrats, in turn, have criticized the Trump administration’s aggressive enforcement tactics, including plainclothes immigration agents covering their faces to hide their identities and arrests of immigrants with no criminal records.
Supporters of sanctuary laws have said local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration enforcement would discourage immigrants who are living in the country illegally from coming forward as victims or witnesses to crimes.
The Chicago City Council passed an ordinance in 2012 that stops city agencies and employees from getting involved in civil immigration enforcement or helping federal authorities with such efforts. The Illinois legislature passed a similar state law, known as the TRUST Act, in 2017.
The Justice Department sued Chicago and Illinois in February, alleging these laws violate the U.S. Constitution’s “Supremacy Clause” that states that federal law preempts state and local laws that may conflict with it.
Jenkins, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, rejected that argument in Friday’s ruling, saying the city’s and the state’s policies are protected by the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which ensures that states retain significant powers not explicitly granted to the federal government.
The Trump administration on Thursday filed a similar lawsuit against New York City over its local sanctuary laws. A similar case against Los Angeles is pending.
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe, Editing by Bhargav Acharya, Diane Craft and Alexia Garamfalvi and David Gregorio)
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