Chicago Wants Money for Lawbreaking
FAIR shows city has no standing to object to Trump’s funding cutoff
WASHINGTON—Chicago, faced with a cut-off of federal funding by the Trump administration because of its sanctuary policies, has brought suit in an Illinois federal district court, demanding that the court order its funding continued even as it continues to pursue noncooperation policies aimed at protecting criminal aliens and illegal aliens from federal law enforcement. On Friday, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) submitted a brief in the case opposing that effort.
FAIR points out in its brief that Chicago has no standing to ask the court to protect its sanctuary policies, because those policies, being in conflict with federal immigration law, violate the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. Thus, the court does not even have jurisdiction to save the city from the choice Trump has put it to: either lose the funding or cease protecting illegal aliens and criminal aliens from federal law enforcement.
“Rather than just comply with federal law and the Constitution, Chicago has run to court to keep the money flowing even as it goes on breaking the law,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of FAIR. “That’s not how this works. You have to be injured to bring a lawsuit, and you’re not injured, in any way a court can respect, if what happens to you stems from your deliberate breaking of the law. We hope the court sees that these policies flatly violate the Constitution, and denies relief.”
The case is Chicago v. DHS, No. 1:25-cv-13863 (N.D. Ill.).
