More cities and states have responded to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s threat to prosecute them over so-called sanctuary policies limiting law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration enforcement — some by thumbing their noses, at least one by acquiescing.

Written responses defending sanctuary policies have been sent to Bondi from cities including Albuquerque, New Mexico; Boston; Hoboken, New Jersey; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, along with the states of California, Connecticut, Minnesota,Oregon and Washington. Many noted that courts so far have upheld their right to limit cooperation with deportations.

“Pam Bondi seeks to have Washington state bend the knee to a Trump administration that, day by day, drags us closer to authoritarianism. That’s not going to happen,” Washington Governor Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, said in an August 19 news conference.

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Louisville, Kentucky, is one city that agreed to more cooperation after a confrontation over the issue — before Bondi threatened prosecution in August, but after the attorney general said she had issued a “strong written warning” to the city.

The city had stopped complying in 2017 with so-called detainer requests to hold jailed residents for immigration authorities, but leaders resumed cooperation to avoid being targeted for more raids.

“Cities on the sanctuary city list right now are experiencing a terrifying increase in raids by ICE, including mass raids,” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, a Democrat, said in a July 22 statement. “I’ve talked with leaders within our immigrant community before I made this decision. I heard their fears loud and clear about current federal policies and ICE actions. I also heard that they want Louisville off the federal sanctuary city list.”

Bondi issued a revised list of sanctuary cities, counties and states in August.

Rochester, New York, meanwhile, in August amended its municipal code to strengthen its policies against cooperation by adding disciplinary measures for personnel who violate the policy. State Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, had earlier supported the city’s existing policies in court, saying in a statement that they “keep communities safe and allow local law enforcement to use resources to address local public safety priorities.”

In Boston, Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu’s response letter accused the Trump administration of “false and continuous attacks” as part of a campaign to “divide, isolate, and intimidate our cities, and make Americans fearful of one another.”

U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick issued a new order August 22 extending a preliminary injunction to more cities, counties and states that had asked for protection against President Donald Trump’s executive orders and agency directives. Trump sought to withhold unrelated federal funding based on similar sanctuary policies.

Orrick’s ruling found the orders and directives are likely to be unconstitutional violations of local rights to set limits on immigration enforcement cooperation.

The injunction covers 50 areas in 14 states: California, Connecticut, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.

Trump administration lawyers asked August 26 to dismiss the case, arguing that the administration’s actions so far “merely instruct agencies to assess federal grant programs to determine where they can lawfully add immigration related conditions.”

A hearing is scheduled October 22.