📎 Federal Resource Round-Up

The federal administration continues to escalate its attacks on localities – pressuring them to enforce its agenda through a new sanctuary jurisdiction list, sweeping executive orders, and domestic military deployment. These moves aim to force local governments into criminalizing immigrants and unhoused people while rolling back effective policies, all part of an effort to undermine local democratic decision-making.

Local leaders, however, refuse to be bullied and continue to fight on the frontlines. Read below for legal updates, action items and resources, and how localities are taking on an authoritarian agenda by challenging Big Tech.

Our goal for these round-ups is to help you connect with key, timely information and resources from Local Progress and partners—and to help you focus on where local power can be effectively leveraged in this moment.

🏛️Federal Takeover of Washington, D.C.

On Monday, the federal administration escalated its criminalization of our communities by deploying the National Guard and taking control of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. – and has threatened to do the same in cities like Chicago and New York. 

Two aspects of D.C.’s legal status make the District vulnerable to such federal abuse:

1. Home Rule Act loophole: The president to federalize D.C.’s local police for up to 30 days under “emergency” circumstances. The administration has falsely claimed that crime (currently at a 30-year low) constitutes such an emergency. This power does not extend to other cities.
   
   
2. National Guard control: The D.C. National Guard reports directly to the president, not the mayor. DOJ has long argued that the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law prohibiting domestic deployments of the military, does not apply here. Elsewhere, the Act generally prevents direct deployment.

There are a few statutory exceptions to Posse Comitatus, one of which Trump invoked in Los Angeles in June to deploy the National Guard and Marines over California’s objections. While litigation continues, a federal appeals court has preliminarily sided with the administration’s broad interpretation of its statutory authority, ruling that certain protest activity “significantly impeded” federal officers’ ability to execute federal law.

Bottom line: We must be prepared for high-profile immigration enforcement actions and attempts by federal agencies to escalate confrontations with protestors creating pretext to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy the National Guard. For guidance, read our Policy Bulletin on Protecting First Amendment Rights, which outlines best practices including developing clear, measured communications strategies and coordinating with municipal attorneys to challenge deployment in court. If you’re in touch with National Guard members with questions about the legality of their deployment, you can refer them to About Face or The Orders Project for advice. In the meantime, use your voice to stand in solidarity with D.C. – post a tweet or send a letter to your Congressional representatives! 

🛡️ Sanctuary Policies Remain Legal 

Sanctuary policies are legal – and critical for keeping our communities safe.  The administration’s release of a new list last week along with criteria for targeting local government is the latest attempt to bully local leaders into compliance with a racist, anti-immigrant agenda. We’ve been here before: the administration tried a similar anti-sanctuary jurisdiction executive order in 2017 and lost in court. Now, jurisdictions across the country are fighting back and winning key legal victories. 

What’s at stake: The administration’s actions threaten to:

• Coerce local governments into enforcing federal immigration laws;
• Withhold federal grant funding for critical, life-saving resources; and
• Erode local democracy by intimidating local elected officials and deterring sanctuary policies that protect residents.

Legal pushback is working:

• Case dismissed: The Department of Justice has filed lawsuits against multiple sanctuary cities and states for refusing to cooperate with the federal government’s cruel, anti-immigrant agenda. On July 25, a federal court dismissed the case against Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois, reaffirming local governments’ right to refuse using local resources to assist the federal government with immigration enforcement.
• Initial wins in affirmative lawsuits:  A coalition of local governments sued to stop the administration’s attacks on sanctuary jurisdictions. The court issued a preliminary injunction (later clarified here) prohibiting the administration from directly or indirectly taking any action to withhold, freeze, or condition federal funding from the jurisdictions involved in this litigation— even those on the updated sanctuary jurisdiction list. Another court issued a preliminary injunction in a separate case brought by sixty cities and counties challenging the administration’s attempts to condition receipt of federal housing and transit-related grants on compliance with racist, anti-immigrant, anti-abortion, and transphobic terms. A total of sixty jurisdictions have joined the suit. The preliminary injunction blocks the administration from enforcing new grant terms or rescinding grants against existing plaintiff jurisdictions.

As these cases move forward, local leaders can: 

👀 Ensure your jurisdiction’s staff carefully review documents related to federal grants to watch out for surprise terms.

🤝 Coordinate with peer jurisdictions to share legal strategies. If your municipality is interested in challenging the Administration in court, contact helpdesk@localprogress.org to be connected to organizations that can offer legal support and representation.

🗞️ Shape the narrative about the need for and importance of sanctuary policies. 

📚 Share resources so residents know their rights and can connect with legal resources.

Most importantly, now is the time to hold the line: local jurisdictions must stand strong in our values and continue passing, maintaining, and sharpening, disentanglement or noncooperation policies. If your jurisdiction is interested in reviewing and/or strengthening your sanctuary policies, please contact Local Progress at helpdesk@localprogress.org.

❤️ Protecting the Safety and Autonomy of Communities in Crisis 

The administration issued an Executive Order last month pressuring local governments to step up efforts to criminalize and forcibly institutionalize unhoused people, people with unmet mental health needs, drug users, and other vulnerable communities. The administration specifically calls for increased sweeps of unhoused people and encampments, forced (and indefinite) civil commitment, and funding attacks against overdose prevention centers, harm reduction programs, and “housing first” initiatives. Let’s be clear – this EO actively punishes jurisdictions that have employed proven solutions to keep our most vulnerable safe.

It is now more critical than ever that we come together to care for all members of our community experiencing crisis and refuse being conscripted into the administration’s right-wing agenda. 

Here is what you can do:

• Read the National Homelessness Law Center’s statement and join their #HousingNotHandcuffs campaign.
• Read these policy resources from Drug Policy Alliance on: Overdose Prevention Centers (OPCs), Addressing Addiction, Mental Health, and Homelessness Through Health and Supportive Services, and Why Accessible and Voluntary Treatment Wins Out Over Forced Treatment. 
• Build community responders programs: Hundreds of cities across the country have invested in programs that allow unarmed, trained civilians to respond to concerns like mental health emergencies, noise complaints, wellness checks and more. These programs are popular and have already seen success. Check out LP’s resources on setting up a Community Responder Program and reach out to the LP Help Desk for questions or support.

   

🥊 Localities are Fighting Big Tech – and Winning 

Local leaders are also pushing back against the expanding reach of Big Tech:

• Fighting destructive AI-powered data centers: Communities are raising concerns over massive water and energy use, pollution, and the corrupt use of nondisclosure agreements by corporations to prevent effective local oversight of AI infrastructure projects. Read this report on how Tucson managed to surmount these challenges and ultimately block a project last week– and reach out to the Local Progress Help Desk for information on how other communities with NDA-covered data center deals can push back.
• Challenging surveillance tech and ALPRs: Vendors like the $7.5 billion surveillance company Flock Safety – operating cameras in 49 states and over 5,000 communities – are raking in millions in public funds while evading public oversight. Read this report about one of many cities fought back, moving to end contracts and take down these surveillance systems, citing risks to privacy, harm to vulnerable communities, and erosion of democratic control over public infrastructure and dollars. 

These fights show that localities are on the frontlines of strategically pushing back against corporate power. If you’re looking for support on issues related to data centers or surveillance technology, reach out to the LP Help Desk at helpdesk@localprogress.org.

📝 Call to Action: Sign On to UN Human Rights Council Letter

The UN Human Rights Council will review the U.S. this November through its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) – a process that assesses every country’s human rights record and recommends actions to improve it. This review is a rare opportunity for global accountability, and local leadership must be ready to step up. With the possibility that the federal administration could again refuse to participate, state and local leaders have a critical opportunity to show that human rights are non-negotiable. Sign the letter to the Council’s President urging the review to proceed and recognizing the role of local leaders in advancing human rights at home. 

Sign On to the letter HERE by August 22, 2025 at 5:00 PM EST. Learn more about the UPR process HERE.

Photo credit: Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images; retrieved from The Nation