DOJ ends Trump-era limits on grants to 'sanctuary cities'

The U.S. Justice Department has reversed a policy put in place during Donald Trump’s presidency that cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to sanctuary cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

In an internal memo seen by Reuters, prior grant recipients, including cities, counties and states that were recipients of the department's popular $250 million annual grant program for local law enforcement, will no longer be required to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a condition of their funding.

[DONALD TRUMP ON MARCH 20, 2018] "Sanctuary cities release thousands of people out of our prisons and jails. and back into our communities. They go into those cities, because when they see the they go there because they know that are safe. And in many cases they are very bad actors."

DOJ staff were ordered to cancel any pending Justice Department grant applications with such strings attached and start the process over again.

Shortly after being sworn in, Biden overturned a Trump executive order that had allowed the Justice Department to pressure cities that refused to notify federal immigration authorities when people living in the U.S. illegally have been detained for criminal violations, including minor ones.

Biden's Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered the department to begin to implement the change on April 14th.

According to the memo - the Justice Department's decision to cease using immigration-related criteria will apply to all of the department's grants