By George Lehman
Boston University News Service
The Department of Justice is suing Boston along with Mayor Michelle Wu and Police Commissioner Michael Cox, claiming the city’s sanctuary policies “obstruct” the federal government from enforcing its immigration laws.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday, lawyers on behalf of the DOJ alleged the Boston Trust Act, which prohibits Boston police from working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for detainment requests on the basis of immigration status unless ICE has a criminal warrant, violates the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
“Cities cannot obstruct the Federal Government from enforcing immigration laws,” the DOJ’s lawyers said in the complaint. “When that occurs, a city breaks the law. The City of Boston is doing just that.”
Wu said the lawsuit is an “unconstitutional attack” in a statement to Boston University News Service.
“This unconstitutional attack on our city is not a surprise,” Wu said in her statement. “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. We will not yield.”
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-M.A., defended Wu’s leadership in a post to X on Thursday.
“Boston is one of the safest major cities in America thanks to Mayor Wu’s leadership and the trust between residents and public safety officials,” Warren wrote. “Donald Trump’s latest authoritarian power grab is unconstitutional — and it won’t make people safer or make life better as he fails to lower costs for working families.”
The lawsuit comes after Politico reported last Friday that the Trump administration is readying an “immigration enforcement blitz” to take place in Boston in the coming weeks, citing both current and former administration sources. Boston University News Service has not independently confirmed this.
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who represents Massachusetts’s seventh congressional district including the City of Boston, called the Trump administration’s deployment of the National Guard in Washington D.C. an “abuse of power” earlier today while speaking outside of the U.S. Capitol.
“When Trump uses these authoritarian tactics in D.C., he is signaling and threatening his intent to bring them to communities across our country, including Boston,” Pressley said.
Wu has held steadfast in her opposition towards the Trump administration’s immigration policies, saying that Boston will “not back down” from deportation efforts during a press conference last month following Attorney General Pam Bondi’s notice that Boston was not in compliance with federal immigration policies.
“Stop attacking our city to hide your administration’s failures,” Wu said during last month’s press conference. “We will not back away from our community that has made us the safest major city in the country.”
