The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Thursday in opposition to Boston’s Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu over town’s so-called sanctuary policy, which limits cooperation with federal immigration efforts.
The lawsuit, which additionally targets town’s police division and its commissioner, alleges that Boston’s policy is illegitimate as a result of “cities cannot obstruct the Federal Government from enforcing immigration laws.”
The Boston Trust Act, signed into legislation in 2014 and amended in 2019, prohibits legislation enforcement officers from making arrests solely primarily based on warrants from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, conserving people in custody on the request of ICE — often known as a detainer request — and sharing details about an individual’s launch time with the company.
“These provisions reflect that City’s intentional effort to obstruct the Federal Government’s enforcement of federal immigration law and to impede consultation and communication between federal, state, and local law enforcement officials that is necessary for federal officials to carry out federal immigration law and keep Americans safe,” the Justice Department argued within the lawsuit.
NCS has reached out to Wu’s workplace for remark.
“Sanctuary city” is a broad time period referring to jurisdictions with insurance policies that restrict cooperation with federal immigration enforcement actions, however the time period is nebulously outlined.
In latest weeks, the mayor has remained defiant because the Trump administration has threatened to punish such jurisdictions because the president strives to extend deportations.
“Stop attacking our cities to hide your administration’s failures,” Wu said last month after Attorney General Pam Bondi threatened to prosecute native officers whose cities didn’t adjust to the White House’s immigration crackdown. “Unlike the Trump administration, Boston follows the law.”
Bondi has additionally threatened to withhold funding from cities who restrict their cooperation with federal immigration authorities, however a federal judge ruled late last month that the Trump administration can’t deny funds to Boston and different jurisdictions.
The Justice Department has equally sued Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago over their insurance policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Earlier this summer time, a federal decide in Illinois dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit in opposition to Chicago, which additionally focused state officers in Illinois and native officers in Cook County. The decide dominated that the administration lacked “standing to sue.”