Justice Department sues 4 New Jersey cities over immigration policies. Here's what the lawsuit says.
The Trump administration is suing four New Jersey sanctuary cities and their elected officials for alleged immigration violations.
The Justice Department alleges Newark, Hoboken, Jersey City and Paterson unlawfully obstructed federal immigration agents. Democratic Mayors Ras Baraka, Ravi Bhalla, Steven Fulop and Andre Sayegh, along with the four city councils, are named as defendants.
According to the federal government's claims, "these cities (along with their elected officials) deny federal immigration agents access to illegal aliens in local custody; restrict local officers' ability to hand over illegal aliens to federal agents; and bar otherwise willing local officers from providing mission-critical information to federal immigration authorities."
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka says new DOJ lawsuit is "ridiculous"
The federal civil lawsuit challenges the validity of sanctuary city laws and seeks to have a judge strike them down.
Baraka, Newark's mayor who was recently arrested outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in his city, said in a statement the new lawsuit is "absurd."
"It's a waste of taxpayer money. It's really ridiculous. There's no evidence that sanctuary cities create a hazard for the people in the community or the police," Baraka told CBS News New York. "They're trying to scapegoat all of us because, you know, they told people that they were going to arrest millions of criminals, and what we're finding out is that the people that they're detaining are in fact, the majority are not criminals."
Baraka's previous case was dropped, but U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver was federally charged with assault during the protest at Delaney Hall. She denied wrongdoing and called the charges "purely political."
By and large, the Trump administration has not been successful at challenging sanctuary city laws. Several prior rulings have said the feds cannot use spending powers, or withhold funds, to coerce compliance with immigration laws. Courts have also ruled that state and local governments have autonomy to determine their own policies.
"Nothing in our policies prevents law enforcement from doing their jobs. What we refuse to do is turn our city into an arm of federal immigration enforcement, which the courts have already ruled is not our role," Baraka said in an earlier statement. "Immigrants are far more likely to be victims of crimes than perpetrators, and there is no evidence whatsoever that sanctuary policies make communities less safe. In fact, the opposite is true -- we have reduced homicides by 61% since I became mayor. So our policies aren't just legal, they're working."
Read the lawsuit
Other N.J. mayors respond to sanctuary cities lawsuit
Like Baraka, the mayors of the three other cities struck a defiant tone.
"What Donald Trump is doing in the United State of America to the immigrant community is an absolute disgrace. Hoboken will not back down from the threats of the Trump administration," Mayor Bhalla told CBS News New York.
"This is a frivolous lawsuit and a flagrant affront to the rule of law," Paterson Mayor Sayegh said in a statement. "We will not be intimidated, and we will fight this egregious attempt to score political points at Paterson's expense. The city will address the lawsuit through the appropriate legal processes, reaffirming its commitment to public safety and maintaining trust within the community."
"I guess MAGA ran out of conspiracy theories," Jersey City Mayor Fulop's statement said. "Here is the truth: Jersey City's policies protect families, reflect our values, and have led to record-low crime rates."
Bhalla earlier issued the statement, saying, "My first official act in 2018 as Hoboken's new mayor was to declare by Executive Order and a General Order of the Hoboken Police Department that Hoboken is a 'Fair and Welcoming City' ... this means that our city's tax dollars, police, and other city personnel will not be commandeered by the federal government to enforce federal immigration orders -- especially those that violate the constitutional rights of our residents and non-resident visitors. It also means that in Hoboken, the law shall be applied equally regardless of immigration status. This is the American way."
Fulop and Baraka are currently running for governor of New Jersey.
