Tom Homan, the White House boarder czar, said he was “bringing hell” to Boston, and two neighboring cities say they’ll be taking the Trump administration to court.
City leaders in Somerville and Chelsea announced Monday that the two cities have filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration over its threats to cut funding to sanctuary cities.
Somerville and Chelsea are both sanctuary cities — a status that the local leaders say encourages victims and witnesses of crime to work with police without worrying about their immigration status. Sanctuary cities have become a target for the Trump administration, which continues to double down on immigration enforcement.
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WATCH HERE“Cities cannot be intimidated into enforcing immigration laws," Chelsea City Manager Fidel Maltez said at a press conference on Monday.
“Being a welcoming community supports trust in law enforcement trust is vital it drives down crime," added Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne.
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SIGN UP The Trump administration recently sued the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago over their sanctuary city policies, claiming those policies are blocking federal authorities from enforcing immigration laws.
Boston is a sanctuary city, too, and was a target of White House border czar Tom Homan's speech over the weekend at the final day of CPAC.
"I'm coming to Boston, I'm bringing hell with me," after referring to an interview Commissioner Michael Cox gave about adhering to state law on civil detainers filed by federal immigration law enforcement. "Take that badge off your chest, put it in the desk drawer because you became a politician. You forgot what it's like to be a cop."
Mayor Michelle Wu said Cox' record of making Boston safer speaks for itself, calling the remarks made by Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, clueless.
"It's insulting. We have the best police commissioner in the country. Boston's crime levels are at the lowest ever reported in our history," the mayor said.
For the governor, however, there's a distinction between going after violent criminals and undocumented immigrants who are living peacefully.
“I'm all in and supporting the work that we need to do to go after and remove people who have committed crimes, who are doing violent things in our communities, including undocumented folks," Healey said.
Monday's lawsuit from Chelsea and Somerville are seeking a federal court to hold that recent immigration executive orders from Trump, as well as DOJ and DOT directives, are unconstitutional.
