The Department of Justice under newly confirmed Attorney General Pam Bondi sued the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago on Thursday, arguing that their sanctuary laws “interfere” with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.
Multiple state and local laws are “designed to and in fact interfere with and discriminate against the Federal Government’s enforcement of federal immigration law in violation of the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution,” according to the DOJ lawsuit against Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, both Democrats.
The lawsuit is the first the Justice Department has filed since pledging to investigate state and local officials for obstructing President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. It follows Bondi’s Wednesday directive to cut federal funding to sanctuary cities, which restrict local law enforcement from cooperating with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Illinois and Chicago “refuse to cooperate with [ICE] detainers,” according to a DOJ official who spoke to the New York Post. “Instead of handing over people who are in prison or in jail to federal immigration authorities they will just let folks go.”
The Illinois TRUST Act, signed into law in 2017, asserts that “State law does not currently grant State or local law enforcement the authority to enforce federal civil immigration laws.” Chicago’s Welcoming City ordinance goes even further, prohibiting any city agency or official from arresting or detaining “a person solely on the belief that the person is not present legally in the United States.”
ICE has deported around 6,000 illegal immigrants since Trump took office on January 20, a senior White House official told the Daily Mail. Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, has vowed to carry out “a well-targeted, planned operation” to remove illegal aliens, targeting “the worst first.” Homan has noted, however, that “sanctuary cities are making it very difficult to arrest criminals.”
Bondi in a Thursday statement said that “for too long, leaders in Illinois and Chicago have abused their power by putting the comfort of illegal aliens over the safety and welfare of their own citizens.”
“This ends today,” Bondi continued. “The Department of Justice will no longer stand by as state and local leaders obstruct federal law enforcement efforts, endangering their citizens and the brave men and women in uniform.”
