The lawsuit, which will be filed in a U.S. district court, is being led by Santa Clara County and San Francisco. Portland, New Haven and King County are also signing on. The legal action comes the day after the Department of Justice sued the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois over its sanctuary policies.

San Francisco and Santa Clara County are suing the Trump Administration for threatening to withhold federal funding from local jurisdictions with sanctuary policies that protect undocumented residents from deportation.

The threats of defunding are especially alarming for cities like San Francisco, where services such as Bay Area Rapid Transit are starting at a fiscal cliff. San Francisco and Santa Clara could potentially lose billions of dollars in funding for necessary services, said Chiu and Tony LoPresti, who represents Santa Clara County.