U.S. Justice Department headquarters in Washington.

The legal fight over California's immigration sanctuary laws will stay in Sacramento, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge John Mendez of the Eastern District of California rejected California Attorney General Xavier Becerra's effort to transfer the case, filed earlier this month, to the Northern District court in San Francisco. That's where U.S. District Judge William Orrick is hearing California's challenge to a Trump administration proposal to deny law enforcement grants to cities and counties that do not cooperate with federal immigration agents.

While both cases involve 10th Amendment issues, Mendez said, the similarities are not enough to warrant a transfer of the sanctuary laws litigation.

“The lawsuits present distinct legal questions, statutes, and factual circumstances to review and resolve,” Mendez wrote. “Given these differences, the actual savings on time, energy, and resources for the district courts and the parties appears minimal.”

The two courts could reach conflicting conclusions, the judge acknowledged.

“It may result in a disputed legal question—and an important one at that—but such a question may be appropriately resolved by an appeal to the Ninth Circuit,” Mendez wrote. “This does not, however, justify concentrating multiple cases of considerable magnitude and distinct legal issues before one district judge with an already overloaded caseload.”

Mendez scheduled a hearing for June 20 on the federal government's motion for a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of three California laws.

The U.S. Justice Department sued California on March 8 arguing that state laws designed to limit the reach of federal immigration enforcement actions in the Golden State violate the Constitution's supremacy clause.

A federal magistrate judge in Sacramento last week authorized California's attorney general to depose two federal immigration enforcement officials who want to block the state's sanctuary laws. Thomas Homan, deputy director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Todd Hoffman of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection department will be interviewed under oath in Washington within the next two weeks.