For many years, the city of Fresno has turned to federal funding for help with testing a backlog of sexual assault kits.

This year, Fresno was slated to get $2 million from the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative for help with ongoing investigations — enough to process 400 untested kits, said Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz.

The U.S. Department of Justice, however, said because of California’s sanctuary policy on immigration, the city would have to certify that it would assist federal authorities with immigration enforcement to be eligible for the funding.

“Given that your jurisdiction is located in a state on the U.S. Sanctuary Jurisdiction List … we request confirmation that the certification was not inadvertent,” a DOJ representative told the city.

Janz, who previously served as the sexual assault prosecutor for the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office, told GV Wire the matter was important to him.

He responded to the DOJ, saying the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that California’s sanctuary policy is consistent with federal law. Thus, grant eligibility cannot hinge on President Donald Trump’s views on immigration.

Abiding by DOJ’s requirements would violate California’s Senate Bill 54, which limits deportation cooperation between local and state authorities and federal law enforcement.

“I will not allow politics to interfere with the testing of these sexual assault kits,” Janz said. “A large percentage of these kits belong to child victims of sexual abuse.”

The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment before this story was published.

10th Amendment Says Cities Cannot Be Coerced Into Cooperation: Janz

Janz said the city relies on this grant to process rape kits.

“It’s a very important part of our local investigations into not only cold cases, but ongoing cases,” Janz said.

The argument against the Trump administration is not unfamiliar for Janz. Judges in two previous cases have sided with the city when it said that the executive branch cannot require cities to enforce laws that fall under the federal government’s jurisdiction.

The matter as it relates to sexual assault kits will be slightly new territory, Janz said, but it still falls under 10th Amendment protections.

He said the Ninth Circuit upheld that determination in a 2019 decision in which the U.S. sued California.

“We are putting them on notice that we will not allow the federal government to play politics with the funding of sexual assault kits and everything that goes into investigating sexual assault crimes,” Janz said.