DENVER -- Denver won, and the feds paid up.

That was the city’s message Friday as it celebrated the arrival of $695,000 from the federal government. It’s normally a routine affair, but the money was tied up for a year in a national fight between cities and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

“From the beginning, we have said that if the Department of Justice attempted to withhold federal funding from Denver based on our immigration policies, we would fight them. We did, and the federal courts have agreed with us,” Mayor Michael Hancock said in a written statement issued Friday.

Denver District Attorney Beth McCann also weighed in on the city’s financial victory.

“The courts have repeatedly declared unlawful the federal administration’s strong-arm tactics jeopardizing local public safety funding,” McCann said in the release. “The release of these funds as authorized by Congress is overdue but welcome.”

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