The Trump administration, in a major challenge to sanctuary city policies, is suing the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago, claiming they are intentionally obstructing the federal government’s enforcement of immigration laws. President Trump has often singled out Chicago as being one of the country’s weakest links in his efforts to enforce immigration laws.  

The lawsuit, filed on Thursday by the Department of Justice, accuses the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, and other elected officials of implementing state and local laws that are “designed to and in fact interfere with and discriminate against the Federal Government’s enforcement of federal immigration law.” 

Such laws, the Justice Department avers, violate the constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which places federal laws above state laws. The department names the Illinois’ Trust Act, the Way Forward Act, and Chicago’s Welcoming City ordinance as provisions that “intentionally obstruct the sharing of information envisioned by Congress” and “facilitate the release of dangerous criminals into the community.”  

The department is calling on the federal court to declare the laws unconstitutional and block them temporarily as the case progresses. “The United States has well-established, preeminent, and preemptive authority to regulate immigration matters,” the department argues. Such authority, they note, “derives from the United States Constitution, numerous acts of Congress, and binding U.S. Supreme Court precedent.” 

The government’s jurisdiction was further strengthened, the department writes, with the enactment of the Laken Riley Act, which “mandates the federal detention of illegal immigrants who are accused of theft, burglary, assaulting a law enforcement officer, and any crime that causes death or serious bodily injury.” 

Mr. Pritzker, however, came to the defense of his state’s laws, releasing a statement on Thursday that “unlike Donald Trump, Illinois follows the law.” Mr. Pritzker added that “Illinois will defend our laws that prioritize police resources for fighting crime while enabling state law enforcement to assist with arresting violent criminals.”

The Illinois governor also took a jab at Mr. Trump’s pardon of “the convicted Jan. 6 violent criminals,” which Mr. Pritzker said marked yet another example of the administration “making it more difficult to protect the public” rather than working to “support law enforcement.” 

Proponents of sanctuary city laws argue that they encourage illegal immigrants who are otherwise law-abiding individuals to report crimes and cooperate with local officials. The lawsuit, however, argues that the nation’s immigration crisis is only exacerbated by sanctuary cities that allow migrants to “live and work among innocent Americans, who may later become their crime victims.”

The lawsuit comes just a day after Attorney General Bondi took a swing at sanctuary cities by ordering the Justice Department to halt federal funding for jurisdictions that “unlawfully interfere with federal law enforcement operations.” Chicago was one of the cities singled out by the attorney general.

In his few weeks in office, Mr. Trump has taken significant measures to overhaul the nation’s immigration policies, including declaring a state of national emergency at the southern border and issuing a slew of immigration-related executive orders — some of which pave the way for the government to fulfill Mr. Trump’s campaign promise of orchestrating “mass deportations” and arrests of undocumented migrants. 

Lawmakers across several Democratic-led states, however, have been working to challenge Mr. Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. In recent weeks, states like Massachusetts, Oregon, Connecticut, Washington, and others have proposed various measures to protect illegal immigrants, such as restricting landlords from inquiring about immigration status.