Shortly after the federal judge's decision was announced Tuesday, St. Paul City Attorney Sammy Clark sent an email to the mayor's spokesman, Ben Petok.
Petok said Clark's email summed up the city's response to the decision. It contained just one word: "Hooray!"
Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges reacted with a tweet saying, "Proud that Mpls is part of suit against Trump's sanctuary cities order that was just enjoined. My city stands tall & w immigrants today."
Minneapolis City Attorney Susan Segal called the court opinion "a grand-slam confirmation of what we've been saying all along."
"Part of the constitutional separation of powers between the federal government and state and local government is that we get to decide what's best for the public safety of people in Minneapolis, as long as we're in compliance with actual federal law," Segal said. "And that's what we do. That's what we've been doing."
In the Twin Cities, counties would have more federal funding at stake than cities.
Hennepin County receives about $198 million in federal funding, about 10 percent of the budget. In Ramsey County, the budget includes $89.6 million from federal sources, about 14 percent of the total. That's far more than the largest cities in those counties, Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Still, city officials have been monitoring the issue and Minneapolis and St. Paul were among cities nationwide that filed amicus briefs in the case.
