Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has been at odds with sanctuary state and city policies, striving to address them legally. On Friday, a judge appointed by Biden delivered a blow to the administration by dismissing a lawsuit from the Trump team that contested the sanctuary laws of Illinois and the city of Chicago.

The judge cited the Tenth Amendment as part of the reason for the ruling.

A federal judge has thrown out the Trump administration’s bid to force Illinois and Chicago to aid its mass deportation agenda, saying it would encroach on autonomy guaranteed to states under the Constitution.

U.S. District Judge Lindsay Jenkins concluded that the lawsuit — the first filed by the administration this year trying to upend so-called “sanctuary policies” in states and cities — was an “end-run around the Tenth Amendment,” which protects states from federal government overreach.

That seems a stretch on the surface, as the Tenth Amendment states:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The powers of border control and the enforcement of immigration laws are, however, the proper responsibility of the federal government. 

The ruling is a setback for Trump, the first defeat in a series of similar lawsuits the Justice Department filed against states and cities that have adopted sanctuary policies that limit their employees’ cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Other suits have been filed against cities in California, New Jersey and New York.

State and local laws don’t override the federal government’s responsibilities for the enforcement of federal laws, including immigration laws.