The order, issued in a Transportation Department memo late last week, calls on the department to "give preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average."

The U.S. Justice Department sued the state of Illinois and city of Chicago on Thursday, accusing the Democratic strongholds of unlawfully interfering with Republican President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration and seeking a court order blocking so-called sanctuary laws.

Federal officials are asking a judge to bar the Illinois, Chicago, Cook County and the Cook County Sheriff from using local laws that protect migrants to hamper law enforcement.