Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment.  Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that threatened to strip federal aid to so-called sanctuary cities that fail to enforce the federal government’s immigration policies. In Massachusetts, two of the state’s poorest cities — Lawrence and Chelsea — have filed a lawsuit challenging the executive order. The Takeaway’s WGBH Producer Elizabeth Ross reports that the Massachusetts suit could offer a blueprint for other small sanctuary communities looking to push back on President Trump’s immigration agenda. Lawrence is an urban industrial city some 25 miles north of Boston. Waves of different immigrant groups have flocked to the city since the mid 1800s to work in the towering red brick textile mills that still line the winding Merrimack River. The mills have long been shuttered, and the city is still trying to get back on its feet, but immigrants have not stopped coming to Lawrence. These days three quarters of the city's residents are Latino or Hispanic, and more than 37 percent were born outside the United States. English language classes are especially popular in Lawrence. Thousands of residents are on waiting lists hoping to attend ESL programs like the ones at the Greater Lawrence Community Action Council. Executive Director Evelyn Friedman says the classes are invaluable. “Many of our students come and they have no English language skills and they’re working at very menial jobs and as they gain skills they move up in their organizations or are able to get better jobs, Friedman says. “The other thing is that they can’t communicate with the teachers of their children. Lawrence could lose out big time if President Trump is able to follow through on his threat and pulls the city’s federal funding. Almost 30 percent of the population in Lawrence lives in poverty and the city relies heavily on federal aid, receiving more than $36 million each year, which is about 13 percent of its annual budget. The federal money helps support ESL classes and many basic services, including the city’s public schools and its free lunch programs.  Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera is the son of a single immigrant mother who once worked in the Lawrence mills. Growing up, Rivera say he benefited personally from many federally funded programs and calls himself a “poster boy for all the good stuff that government can do. “I’m a public school kid [and] a public higher education kid, he says. The GI bill helped him buy his first house, Rivera explains. “My mom was on food stamps [and] we did public housing." Like most sanctuary cities, Lawrence police will hand over criminals to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but will not help ICE with civil immigration investigations and detentions, the way the president wants them to. Supporters of Lawrence’s policy claim it is a matter of public safety and that it encourages all residents, even those who are undocumented, to cooperate with local law enforcement. The mayor says his cash-strapped police force does not have the resources to help more, even if he wanted them to. “I got 80,000 people here, that I gotta fight a drug war. I gotta fight homelessness problems and an opioid problem. I got to have police officers to go respond to car accidents he says. “And to be punished, for not having that resource, it’s basically an unfunded mandate.  Lawrence and the city of Chelsea are trying to block President Trump’s execu...