The Donald Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against the city of Boston, accusing it of obstructing the crackdown on illegal immigrants. According to Reuters, the Department of Justice filed a complaint in Boston federal court on the 4th, alleging that the city’s ordinance is unconstitutional.
The ordinance in question prohibits Boston authorities, including the city police department, from cooperating with federal agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enforce immigration laws.
The Justice Department maintains that this ordinance violates the “Supremacy Clause” of the federal Constitution. They argue that Boston’s ordinance violates the Constitution’s principle that federal law should prevail when local laws, such as state or city laws, conflict with federal law.
In a statement, Attorney General Pam Bondi criticized Boston and Mayor Michelle Wu, saying, “They are blatantly enforcing policies that weaken federal law enforcement and protect undocumented immigrants.”
The Justice Department previously sent letters to 32 “sanctuary cities” that refused to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. The Trump administration is reportedly planning a large-scale crackdown on undocumented immigrants in the Boston area within weeks, intending to continue the same crackdowns in Democratic strongholds like Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Mayor Wu, a Democrat, responded in a statement, calling the Justice Department’s lawsuit an “unconstitutional attack on Boston.”