Boston Mayor Wu leads coalition of US mayors in court fight to get ICE out of Minnesota
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is leading a coalition of U.S. mayors, including many in Massachusetts, who are calling on a federal judge to stop President Donald Trump's "politically motivated invasion" of Minneapolis and other cities.
The Democratic mayor filed the amicus brief in U.S. District Court in Minnesota in support of a lawsuit brought by state officials and Twin Cities leaders who are seeking a temporary restraining order to end what they describe as the "aggressive enforcement tactics" of more than 2,000 federal agents.
The shooting death earlier this month of Renee Nicole Good at the hands of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ignited a national debate over the Republican White House's hardline deportation campaign. It also plunged the Twin Cities into weeks of sometimes violent confrontations with federal agents.
"The Trump Administration's ongoing occupations of peaceful American cities are unconstitutional and illegal," Wu said in a statement. "These politically-motivated invasions of cities, whether by ICE agents or the National Guard, endanger our residents and violate federal law. We are urging the courts to curb the dangerous impulses of a reckless federal administration."
Mayors and city officials from Cambridge, Chelsea, Lynn, Melrose, Newton, Northampton, Salem and Somerville joined Wu in the legal action, alongside mayors from such larger cities as Baltimore, Chicago and Los Angeles.
The legal action argues that the Republican White House is "invading peaceful American cities to unlawfully punish communities that do not instruct local police to engage in Trump's mass deportation agenda."
The brief also argues that the action violates the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which bars the federal government "from commandeering state and local resources for federal purposes," Wu said in the statement.
She noted that the same argument had been "upheld in cases around the country where the Trump Administration has sought to strip funding or otherwise punish jurisdictions with local policies disfavored by the president."
"Local governments shouldn't have to govern under threat," Jill Habig, CEO of Public Rights Project, which participated in the brief. "Operation Metro Surge is a military occupation of an American city. Cities are standing together against this coercion campaign that spreads fear, diverts local resources, and undermines public safety."
Boston Politics
Read the original article on MassLive . Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
