COLORADO, USA — The state of Colorado and the U.S. Department of Justice have agreed to end a lawsuit over the immigration-related conditions that the Trump administration placed on law enforcement funding, after both parties last month asked a federal judge to rescind his finding of a constitutional violation.
U.S. District Court Senior Judge John L. Kane, in an order issued on Tuesday, agreed to amend his judgment from last year that the Justice Department’s requirement for states and localities to cooperate with the federal government on immigration enforcement infringed on Congress’s spending authority. Kane rescinded the finding “to avoid the unnecessary resolution of a constitutional question.”
As a result, the Justice Department, which had appealed Kane’s order, agreed to drop its request to the federal appellate court given the change.
The swift resolution came after the Biden administration repealed the restrictions on law enforcement grants to “sanctuary cities” that refused to use their own resources to carry out immigration laws. Attorney General Phil Weiser on Tuesday celebrated an end to the lawsuit.
“We sued the Justice Department in the previous administration because it broke the law when it withheld federal public safety grants for Colorado because our state would not comply with unlawful immigration-related conditions,” said Weiser.
> Watch the video above: Colorado legislature considers immigration extortion bill
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