Sean Spicer. Alex Wong/Getty Images White House press secretary Sean Spicer released a fiery statement on Tuesday railing against a federal judge who temporarily blocked a Trump administration order that targeted "sanctuary cities."

The statement called out US District Judge William Orrick, without mentioning him by name, after he sided with two California jurisdictions in a lawsuit against the Trump administration, which sought to withhold funding from communities that limit cooperation with federal immigration officials.

Orrick's ruling said that the president had no authority to attach new conditions to federal spending, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

Spicer accused Orrick, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, of "unilaterally" rewriting immigration policy, and accused cities like San Francisco of trying to "erase our borders" by engaging in "the dangerous and unlawful nullification of federal law."

The statement continued: "Those city officials who authored these policies have the blood of dead Americans on their hands."