The new Trump administration fired its first salvo Thursday in what is likely to be a long legal war against so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, filing suit against the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago to try to nullify several laws aimed at reining in immigration enforcement.
The lawsuit alleges that state and local laws limiting law enforcement from cooperating with immigration authorities are unconstitutional because they interfere with powers allocated to the federal government.
“The challenged provisions of Illinois, Chicago, and Cook County law have the purpose and effect of making it more difficult for, and deliberately impeding, federal immigration officers’ ability to carry out their responsibilities in those jurisdictions,” says the 23-page complaint filed in federal District Court in Chicago. “These provisions intentionally obstruct the sharing of information envisioned by Congress, including basic information such as release dates and custodial status, thereby impairing federal detention of removable aliens, including dangerous criminals, as required by federal law.”
The suit was assigned to Judge Lindsay Jenkins, an appointee of President Joe Biden.
The legal action indicates the Trump administration intends to follow through on vows to put a particular focus on Chicago as part of President Donald Trump’s campaign to engage in “mass deportations.” The new case names as defendants Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, both Democrats who have said that they support federal officials targeting undocumented immigrants with criminal records, but that laws on the books prohibit local law enforcement from helping them out.
In a statement, Pritzker pushed back, saying, "Unlike Donald Trump, Illinois follows the law. The bipartisan Illinois TRUST Act, signed into law by a Republican governor, has always been compliant with federal law and still is today. Illinois will defend our laws that prioritize police resources for fighting crime while enabling state law enforcement to assist with arresting violent criminals."
"We don’t want them in our state. We want them out of the country,” Pritzker recently said of criminals who are undocumented immigrants. However, the governor has also been an outspoken critic of Trump's actions on immigration, including his bid to end the constitutional right to birthright citizenship. Illinois is one of many states that sued to challenge Trump’s executive order purporting to end birthright citizenship.
The sanctuary-focused lawsuit filed by the Trump administration comes a day after Johnson and three other big-city mayors — all Democrats — agreed to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on March 5 about their sanctuary policies. The committee’s chair, Kentucky Republican James Comer, has accused the cities of being “obstructionist.”
Trump’s immigration czar, Tom Homan, announced in December that he would make Chicago a target for deportations. But his officers have found it difficult to accomplish a large operation because community organizers have been forceful in promoting a “know your rights” campaign about how to respond to ICE agents.
During Trump’s first term, the Justice Department brought a similar lawsuit against California. The suit suit largely fizzled in the courts, with California being permitted to keep enforcing most of its sanctuary-related laws.
Two of the career DOJ attorneys who helped litigate the case against California are listed as having helped draft the suit filed against Illinois on Thursday.
Comments
Post a Comment