Breaking: Judge blocks Trump from punishing cities that welcome tired, poor huddled masses

California U.S. District Judge William Orrick issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday, blocking Trump’s executive order that would have denied federal funding to cities that do not comply with his administration’s strict deportation policies.

While this ruling applies specifically to San Francisco and Santa Clara County, it could, as Bloomberg notes, have wide-reaching implications for other major cities also facing defunding threats from Trump because of their insistence on protecting undocumented immigrants.

Americans have been horrified by the lengths to which immigration and law enforcement agencies have gone to implement Trump’s policies. One of the most heinous practices recently reported: Immigration officials have been staking out courthouses to detain women seeking protective orders from abusive partners. The enforcement of Trump’s policies is forcing victims of domestic violence to choose between protection from their abusers and protection from immigration officials who might detain and deport them, often tearing them away from their children.

In February, Shareblue reported on Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, an undocumented immigrant in Arizona, who came to America as a teenager, has lived here for nearly two decades, and is the mother of two children. She was detained and deported when she appeared for a routine immigration check-in, forced to leave her children behind.

Rather than show any sign whatsoever of sympathy for families torn apart by his policies, Trump has instead threatened to cut off funding for cities who do not make punishment of immigrants a priority.

The court’s decision to block Trump’s order is hopefully just the first step toward stopping Trump’s larger anti-immigration agenda. It should send a strong message to his administration that threats against communities that stand with immigrants will not be tolerated — by the activists who are fighting against his deportations or by the Constitution.