Amid tension between the City of Boston and White House Border Czar Tom Homan, Massachusetts cities Chelsea and Somerville filed lawsuits Monday against the Trump administration for attempting to defund police departments over sanctuary city policies.
The lawsuits were issued shortly after Homan threatened he was “bringing hell” to the city in response to Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox’s refusal to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Boston.
Boston’s designation as a “sanctuary city” means its police department does not work with ICE to locate and arrest illegal immigrants, said Boston University Law Professor Karen Pita Loor.
“It is an effort by cities, towns [and] states to protect the non-citizens within their jurisdiction, particularly out of a public safety concern,” Loor said.
Kristen Cain, a second-year graduate student at BU School of Law, said while sanctuary policies can slow ICE’s ability to conduct raids, a sanctuary status cannot stop them.
“They can’t stop the federal government from coming in and detaining people and from ICE operating within the city,” Cain said. “All the sanctuary status means is that they’re not allowing law enforcement to help with that effort.”
According to Loor, the Trump administration’s reversal of Biden’s policy barring ICE arrests near sensitive locations, like schools and churches, has created a new purpose for sanctuary policies.
“Essentially sanctuary policies, cities, towns [and] states are trying to ensure non-citizens that they’re going to be safe seeking medical treatment [and] that they’re going to be safe sending their children to school,” she said.
The immigration detainers are “requests” from ICE — “not a judicial order.” Therefore, the police department would be violating individuals’ Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable seizures, Loor said.
The Trump administration and House Republicans threatened to withdraw federal funding from Boston, Chelsea and Somerville’s police departments due to their sanctuary city status.
Loor said Trump cannot legally withdraw funding without Congress’ authorization. During his first term, it was declared unlawful, according to the ruling in City and County of San Francisco v. Trump in 2018.
Chelsea and Somerville leveraged a variety of defenses in their lawsuit, including the Tenth Amendment anti-commandeering defense, which states the federal government cannot force state and city governments to “do their bidding,” Loor said.
Daniel Santiago is the co-founder of the Mabel Center for Immigrant Justice, which provides pro bono legal services to asylum-seeking families. He said he anticipated the Trump administration would target major cities to maximize immigration enforcement.
Boston is a particular focus due to how outwardly supportive the area has been toward immigrants, Santiago said.
“As far as targeting Boston, Mayor Wu’s policies and the governor also, they’ve been really supportive of the immigrant community,” Santiago said. “Even just being supportive is just objectionable to them.”
For Cain, the rhetoric the Trump administration uses to describe immigrants is of particular concern.
“They use that language over and over again, because they’re trying to make them seem less than human,” Cain said. “They’re trying to get people to see them as someone that’s not deserving of dignity, but when you talk to somebody who’s actually lived through this, you realize they are people just like we are.”
Cain said she is specifically concerned with how political leaders describe immigrants as “criminals.”
“It bothers me when politicians equate illegal immigrants and criminals,” Cain said. “It’s not breaking a criminal law to come into the country. It’s a civil violation.”
A 2023 National Bureau of Economic Research study found immigrants today are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than in 1960 and 30% less likely than U.S.-born whites. The study said immigrant incarceration rates last exceeded those of U.S.-born individuals more than 150 years ago.
Despite this, Santiago said ICE will likely still continue ramping up raids. He and his colleagues will be advising their clients to do all they can to be prepared.
“That’s been my job, reassuring the clients,” Santiago said. “We survived the first term, so I am just going to survive the second term.”
Since the beginning of Trump’s second term last month, Santiago said he has already begun to see the fear set in for his clients and is spending most of his time talking with them.
Cain said a positive aspect of the prevalence of immigration law in the news is that it has prompted action.
“It’s good that it’s in the news. I think people are paying attention to it again,” she said. “There has been a lot more organizing around it, and I’m glad to see people are responding.”
