The previous administration’s war on so-called “sanctuary cities” will be no more, Immigration Impact reports. Following a January order from President Joe Biden that began the process of repealing the previous president’s retaliatory policy blocking federal funds from these localities, the Department of Justice (DOJ) under Attorney General Merrick Garland has issued an order that resumes such grants without impediments.

“Nearly all the courts to review the issue blocked the Trump administration’s denial of federal funds to sanctuary cities,” Immigration Impact reported. “The Trump administration appealed one of these cases to the Supreme Court. The Court later dismissed the case at the Biden administration’s request.”

When he wasn’t busy happily terminating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy or ordering that babies be stolen from their parents at the southern border, former Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III was an eager player in the previous president’s anti-immigrant agenda. That included issuing his own threats against U.S. cities, claiming that “sanctuary” policies put “the safety of their communities and their residents at risk.”

That, of course, has always been a big giant lie. “Cities that have adopted ‘sanctuary’ policies did not record an increase in crime as a result of their decision to limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, according to a new Stanford University report,” The Washington Post reported last year. Just as importantly, these policies have helped keep families together, with the research showing “deportations decreased by about one-third overall in jurisdictions that adopted sanctuary policies,” that report continued.

That administration already knew this, of course. Stanford University researcher David K. Hausman told the Post: “The government itself keeps the data I rely on, and if the administration had looked at its own data, it would know these claims are not true.” 

As Immigration Impact notes, the Supreme Court dismissed case last month around the previous administration’s anti-immigrant policy, following a request from the Biden administration. “Local law enforcements’ ability to protect their jurisdictions should never be compromised to push an anti-immigrant agenda,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said according to The Wall Street Journal. Her state had been among those targeted by the previous administration.

But as Immigration Impact also notes, “local law enforcement collaboration with federal immigration enforcement continues,” particularly in the form of a flawed and racist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy that allows local law enforcement to behave like deportation agents and that ballooned under the previous president. House Democrats have issued numerous calls demanding an end to the 287(g) program.  

“The program allows @ICEgov to enter into agreements w/ state & local law enforcement agencies that has led to the degradation in trust between communities of color & police,” tweeted Rep. Ritchie Torres. The New York legislator led one letter signed by roughly two dozen House Democrats calling on House Appropriations Chair Lucille Roybal-Allard of California to strip the policy of funding. “This program must end & should not be funded.”