WASHINGTON After months of bluster about taking away federal law enforcement grants from jurisdictions that dont fully cooperate with deportation efforts, the U.S. Department of Justice acknowledged on Monday what legal experts have said for months: In most cases, the department cant do that.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions released a memo explaining how the department will carry out President Donald Trump s executive order meant to crack down on so-called sanctuary cities , defining them more narrowly than before.

Sanctuary city is a broad term, but is most often applied to jurisdictions that dont comply with all of Immigration and Customs Enforcements detainer requests to hold individuals who would otherwise be released. Yet instead of going after any city or county that doesnt comply with ICEs requests, the executive order will target jurisdictions that specifically dont comply with a law to share information with the federal government for immigration purposes.

Its an important distinction nearly all jurisdictions, even those labeled sanctuary cities, say they do comply with the law to provide information. If thats the case, Trumps anti-sanctuary cities order is largely toothless.

For all of the presidents rhetoric, the Trump administration is now admitting it can only take away funding under narrow circumstances, and not just because jurisdictions are declining to do what ICE asks.

The administration has a good reason to do so: A federal judge temporarily blocked Trumps executive order in April, ruling that it could violate the Constitution if applied broadly, based on its vague wording.