The Department of Justice is suing Boston and Mayor Michelle Wu over the city’s sanctuary laws that interfere with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.
“The City of Boston and its Mayor have been among the worst sanctuary offenders in America — they explicitly enforce policies designed to undermine law enforcement and protect illegal aliens from justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “If Boston won’t protect its citizens from illegal alien crime, this Department of Justice will.”
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The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Massachusetts federal court, argued that Boston is breaking the law by upholding its sanctuary city policies that oppose the federal government. The DOJ said Wu’s resistance has resulted in the blue city’s release of criminals who should have been deported.
These illegal immigrants were charged with “violent and serious crimes, including homicide, assault, larceny, and sexual and drug-related offenses,” the lawsuit stated. “Assault and drug trafficking were the two most charged offenses among those whom ICE sought to detain.”
The DOJ alleged that the Boston Trust Act, the ordinance preventing Boston police from cooperating with immigration authorities, violates the Constitution.
Wu defended her city in a statement, describing the lawsuit as an “unconstitutional attack” and the latest example of the Trump administration’s “authoritarian agenda.”
“This is our City, and we will vigorously defend our laws and the constitutional rights of cities, which have been repeatedly upheld in courts across the country,” Wu said. “We will not yield.”
Boston, Wu, the Boston Police Department, and Police Commissioner Michael Cox were all named defendants in the lawsuit.
BOSTON MAYOR REJECTS TRUMP’S SANCTUARY CITY DEADLINE
The litigation comes one month after Bondi sent letters to 32 mayors in control of sanctuary jurisdictions, warning them of legal repercussions and loss of federal funding if they didn’t comply with immigration enforcement. Boston was among those sanctuary cities listed.
The action marks the DOJ’s latest lawsuit against sanctuary cities, as the Trump administration proceeds with its mass deportations of illegal immigrants. The department sued Los Angeles and New York City, among other cities, in the past few months for obstructing federal immigration enforcement.