In response to an overnight emergency motion filed by the United States Conference of Mayors’ lawyers in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, today the Attorney General consented to a 21-day extension, or until August 31, 2018, for all Byrne JAG award recipients to accept their awarded funds. The Attorney General previously said he would force many cities to choose between agreeing to unlawful immigration-related conditions and losing their federal grant funds by today.
The Conference recently sued in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to enjoin the Attorney General from imposing conditions on Byrne JAG funds needed for critical, life-saving law enforcement programs.
Yesterday, the District Court granted USCM members a preliminary injunction against the Attorney General’s unlawful conditions but suspended the effect of that ruling pending appeal.
Faced with only one day left on the Attorney General’s deadline, USCM’s lawyers worked through the night to file an emergency motion in the Seventh Circuit asking the reviewing court to lift the stay and allow the injunction to go into effect. Rather than respond immediately to the motion, today the Attorney General consented to a 21-day extension, or until August 31, 2018, for all Byrne JAG award recipients to accept the funds.
This will allow cities additional time to consider their options and the appellate court additional time to decide whether to allow the district court’s injunction, which would protect against the threatened conditions, to go into effect.
Please contact Laura Waxman, Director of Public Safety at lwaxman@usmayors.org with questions. USCM’s legal team consists of partners Brian C. Haussmann, Katherine M. O’Brien and John M. Fitzgerald, and associate Kyle A. Cooper of Tabet DiVito & Rothstein LLC in Chicago.