The US Department of Justice (DoJ) sued the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago on Thursday, accusing the authorities there of impeding the Trump administration’s anti-immigration enforcement policies and seeking a court order sweeping aside so-called sanctuary laws.
The department cited a national emergency declared by Donald Trump on the same day he was inaugurated, amid a flurry of executive orders and proclamations as he began his second administration.
The DoJ is seeking to block the enforcement of several state and local laws that the federal government argues “interfere with and discriminate against” the administration’s enforcement of federal immigration law.
The complaint was filed in Chicago federal court.
Chicago’s mayor and the state attorney general did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The authorities in the midwestern city and state have spoken out strongly against Trump’s agenda of a swift crackdown against immigrants, ostensibly to thwart violent criminals but so far dragging in others who simply lack legal status or – in a significant way – hitting people who do have authorization to be in the US, as well as spreading fear.
The Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson, last month told NPR he would protect residents “whether you’re undocumented, whether you are seeking asylum or whether you’re seeking a good-paying job”.
“We’re going to fight and stand up for working people. That’s what Chicago is known for. We’re going to continue to do that regardless of who’s in the White House,” he said.
The administration is heavily marketing its efforts towards Trump’s pledge to deport millions of people but also needs cooperation from local law enforcement to further its goals.
The newly installed US attorney general, Pam Bondi, issued a memo on Wednesday that said sanctuary jurisdictions should not receive federal justice department grants and the department should take actions against jurisdictions that impede immigration enforcement.
Massachusetts’s new top federal prosecutor on Wednesday vowed to investigate local officials if they obstruct the Trump administration’s ramped-up immigration arrests, saying “no one gets a pass”.
Reuters contributed reporting
