WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against New York City, Mayor Eric Adams, and several other city officials to challenge New York's so-called 'sanctuary city' laws.
In the complaint, the Justice Department alleges that New York's sanctuary policies have allowed dangerous criminals to roam the streets and commit heinous crimes within the community. These policies reflect an intentional effort to obstruct federal law enforcement and thus are preempted under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, according to it.
'New York City has released thousands of criminals on the streets to commit violent crimes against law-abiding citizens due to sanctuary city policies,' said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. 'If New York City won't stand up for the safety of its citizens, we will.'
'For too long, New York City has been at the vanguard of interfering with enforcing our immigration laws,' said Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate. 'Its efforts to thwart federal immigration enforcement end now.'
The case, filed in the Eastern District of New York, is the latest action from the Justice Department fighting back against unlawful obstruction of enforcement of federal immigration laws. In the past three months, the Department has filed lawsuits against Los Angeles, New York State, Colorado, Illinois, the city of Rochester, New York, and several New Jersey cities to invalidate unconstitutional sanctuary policies. Recently, the Mayor of Louisville revoked the city's sanctuary policy after the Justice Department threatened legal action.
Earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security alleged that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued 6,025 arrest requests to transfer custody, or detainers, in sanctuary New York City since January 20, but the city authorities has honored just a handful. In non-sanctuary cities, law enforcement would honor these requests and transfer these criminal illegal aliens to ICE law enforcement to detain and deport them.
'In just six months ICE has issued over 6,000 detainers in NYC alone-that's a more than 400 percent increase in the number of detainers lodged under Biden,' said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. 'When sanctuary politicians like Mayor Eric Adams ignore ICE detainers, they are protecting criminal illegal aliens at the expense of American citizens. These are barbaric criminals with prior convictions for rape, murder, drug trafficking, and instead of holding them for ICE, sanctuary politicians release them back into your communities'. He noted that this week, two illegal aliens shot and nearly killed a CBP officer while off-duty. 'Both criminal illegal aliens had been arrested previously for violent crimes and released by the NYPD,' he added.
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