The feds are suing the City of Boston over its sanctuary city policies after Mayor Michelle Wu told Attorney General Pam Bondi that “Boston will never back down.”

The Department of Justice on Thursday filed a lawsuit in Boston federal court against the City of Boston, Wu, the Boston Police Department, and Police Commissioner Michael Cox.

“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,” Bondi said in a statement. “If Boston won’t protect its citizens from illegal alien crime, this Department of Justice will.”

The Justice Department is taking aim at the “Boston Trust Act,” which was passed by the City Council in 2014.

The Trust Act prohibits Boston Police and other city departments from cooperating with ICE on civil immigration detainers. The law, enacted in 2014 and then amended in 2019, allows for cooperation in criminal matters like human trafficking, child exploitation, drug and weapons trafficking, and cybercrimes.

“Cities cannot obstruct the Federal Government from enforcing immigration laws,” the Justice Department wrote in the suit. “When that occurs, a city breaks the law. The City of Boston is doing just that.”

“The Supremacy Clause prohibits the City of Boston and its officials from obstructing the Federal Government’s ability to enforce laws that Congress has enacted…,” the feds wrote in the lawsuit. “The Boston Trust Act runs afoul of these constitutional principles and should be enjoined.”

The feds in the suit note that President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency at the southern border.

“In the face of this monumental crisis, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has repeatedly chosen to shield these criminals from federal law enforcement and reaffirmed Boston’s commitment to being a ‘sanctuary city,’ ” the lawsuit reads.

“In a recent letter to Attorney General Pamela J. Bondi, Mayor Wu went so far as to say that ‘Boston will never back down’ from its sanctuary city policies,” the feds continued. “Her resistance endangers public safety, resulting in a number of criminals being released into Boston who should have been held for immigration removal from the United States.”

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The City of Boston did not immediately respond with a comment about the lawsuit.

On her first day in office, Bondi instructed the Department’s Civil Division to identify state and local laws, policies, and practices that “facilitate violations of federal immigration laws or impede lawful federal immigration operations,” the feds said in a statement.

On Aug. 5, Bondi published a list of sanctuary jurisdictions, which included the City of Boston, and vowed to bring litigation to end these policies nationwide.

This lawsuit against Boston is the latest in a series of lawsuits brought by the Civil Division targeting sanctuary city policies across the country, including in New York, New Jersey, and Los Angeles.

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