The Justice Department has sued four New Jersey cities and their leaders over so-called sanctuary policies that federal lawyers say are hindering the Trump administration’s enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.
With their policies, the cities, Newark, Jersey City, Hoboken and Paterson, are shielding illegal immigrants from lawful prosecution, Justice Department lawyers write in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Newark on Thursday.
“While states and local governments are free to stand aside as the United States performs this important work, they cannot stand in the way,” the lawsuit says. “And where inaction crosses into obstruction, local governments break federal law.”
The suit was filed a day after a judge dismissed federal trespassing charges that had been filed against Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark this month after his arrest outside a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center where people were protesting.
Mr. Baraka said at a hearing last week that he had been “targeted” for selective enforcement. He was named as a defendant in the suit filed on Thursday, as were Mayor Steven Fulop of Jersey City, Mayor Andre Sayegh of Paterson and Mayor Ravi Bhalla of Hoboken. All are Democrats; Mr. Fulop and Mr. Baraka are candidates in the Democratic primary for governor.
Mr. Fulop said he had learned of the lawsuit from a post on the social media app X.
“I think it’s a political sideshow,” he said. “It’s a stunt.”
Mr. Sayegh echoed that sentiment.
“This is a frivolous lawsuit and a flagrant affront to the rule of law,” he said. “We will not be intimidated, and we will fight this egregious attempt to score political points at Paterson’s expense.”
About a dozen states and hundreds of U.S. cities consider themselves “sanctuaries” for undocumented immigrants, but there is no universal definition for what qualifies as such a jurisdiction.
The term “sanctuary” typically refers to governments that put some limits on how far they will go in cooperating with federal efforts to deport undocumented immigrants.
The Trump administration has made clear that it wants to eliminate such policies as part of its broader immigration crackdown. Referring to the New Jersey suit, Chad Mizelle, the Justice Department’s chief of staff, wrote in a social media post on Friday that “sanctuary cities are antithetical to law and order.”
He added: “Sanctuary policies aren’t activism and aren’t humanitarianism. They’re obstruction, and they end now.”
The suit against the New Jersey cities and their mayors follows similar litigation filed this month against Colorado and Denver. That suit, which includes Gov. Jared Polis and Mayor Mike Johnston of Denver, both Democrats, as defendants, challenges state and city laws that restrict or prohibit cooperation with federal agencies.
The Justice Department has also sued Illinois, Chicago, their leaders, Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson, also Democrats, and Rochester, N.Y., over the same issues.
Earlier this week, the Justice Department charged Representative LaMonica McIver, Democrat of Newark, with assaulting two federal agents as they arrested Mr. Baraka outside the detention center.
Ms. McIver disputes the government’s description of the events at the center.
“It’s political intimidation, and I’m looking forward to my day in court,” Ms. McIver told reporters on Tuesday in Washington.
Christopher Maag is a reporter covering the New York City region for The Times.
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