DOJ Can’t Withhold Funds to L.A. Over Immigration Conditions

The U.S. Department of Justice improperly conditioned criminal justice program grants to Los Angeles on the city’s compliance with immigration enforcement, the Ninth Circuit said Oct. 31.

The Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Act of 2005 didn’t authorize the DOJ to require Los Angeles to tell the Department of Homeland Security about release times for detained aliens in order to receive grant funding, Judge Sandra S. Ikuta of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said.

The DOJ also wasn’t allowed to require Los Angeles, as a funding condition, to give federal agents access to correctional ...