California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is launching a preemptive legal assault against the Trump administration’s promise to pull tens of billions of dollars of federal funding from “sanctuary cities” that do not cooperate in enforcement against illegal aliens.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra is leading a coalition of 300 cities, 18 counties, and the State of California that intend to sue the Trump administration over U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s plan to begin cutting off funding to jurisdictions tagged by the U.S. Justice Department as “sanctuary cities,” which harbor illegal aliens from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, according to the Sacramento Bee.

But President Trump is seeking to withhold funds from sanctuary cities through executive orders that his administration is defending in court. And that is only the beginning.

 

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives recently passed Kate’s Law, which would increase maximum penalties for criminal aliens who attempt to re-enter the country, and H.R. 3003, which would cut funding to sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration laws.

With the U.S. Senate expected to soon pass similar legislation for President Trump’s signature, California Democrats understand that significant funding is at risk of being suspended over issues associated with sanctuary cities.

The breakdown of California’s federal funding, by department, includes: 52 percent for Health and Human Services (Medicaid); an average of 25 percent of all state and local government general revenues for Labor and Workforce Development; 14 percent for Education; 6 percent for Transportation; 2 percent for Legislative, Judicial and Executive; and 1 percent for General Government, which includes Natural Resources, Environmental Protection, Corrections and Rehabilitation, State and Consumer Services.

In an added risk to Democrats, Breitbart California editor Joel Pollak reported on August 5th that Judicial Watch just wrote a letter to California Secretary of State Alex Padilla questioning why 11 of California’s 58 counties appear to be in violation of the National Voter Registration Act by having more registered voters than adults over the age of 18.

California Governor Jerry Brown appointed Becerra as Attorney General in January, replacing Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA).