St. Paul and Minneapolis announced Wednesday the cities will join San Francisco in litigation against President Donald Trump.

The White House argues St. Paul’s 2004 separation ordinance interferes with federal immigration enforcements. The ordinance prohibits city employees from asking residents about immigration status.  

But St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said the city’s policy does not oppose lawful immigration enforcement.

“What we’ve said is that city employees will not be deputized, will not be commandeered in service to enforcing federal immigration policy,” Carter said.

Carter said the president’s executive order threatens to withhold over $200 million in federal funding from the city of St. Paul because of the city’s immigration policy.

He called the withholding of federal funds unlawful, over what he said is an unlawful political demand.  

“We are taking action to ensure the continuity of local services that receive federal funding,” Carter said. “More importantly, to preserve and protect the basic covenant that our residents and businesses, who contribute millions in hard earned tax dollars, have a right to benefit from that federal funding that they provide.” 

This is not the first of recent tensions between the Trump administration and St. Paul officials. On Tuesday, the White House published an article calling out five city or state governments across the country that are said to be uncooperative with deportation efforts.  

“If politicians in so-called ‘sanctuary’ locales had it their way, these vicious criminals would still be free to roam our streets,” the article reads.  

St. Paul is the first city in the article. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Mayor Melvin Carter and St. Paul City Council Vice President Hwa Jeong Kim are named. 

Kim spoke against the article and in favor of St. Paul’s policy during Wednesday’s City Council meeting.

“As one of the few politicians in St. Paul so far that has been named by the Trump administration, we are very honored to be named as a ward office that protects, like all of our offices that protects and will fight for our immigrant community,” she said.

Minneapolis also announced it would join the lawsuit, saying the executive order is an example of federal government overreach and that the city wants to preserve a “separation between municipal services and federal immigration enforcement.”

“For more than two decades through its separation ordinance, Minneapolis has prioritized using its resources for the health and safety of the entire Minneapolis community,” the city said in a statement released Wednesday.

MPR News reporter Regina Medina contributed to this report.

Collected from Minnesota Public Radio News. View original source here.