New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said the lawsuit is meant to protect the city’s place as a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants
San Francisco and Santa Clara County are leading the lawsuit. Portland, Oregon, and King County, Washington, which includes Seattle, are also participating.
The cities oppose Trump’s executive order to cut Department of Justice funding for cities that welcome immigrants.
New Haven follows a “Welcoming City” policy, which means it does not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement unless required by law.
Elicker said the city would lose over $6.4 million in DOJ funding, which would hurt public safety initiatives like violence prevention and crisis response and make the city less safe.
“It attempts to divert resources away from fighting crime towards hunting down good community members that are productive and happen to be immigrants,” Elicker said. “By cutting public safety funding vital to our city’s ability to fight crime, it will make our city less safe. Let’s be clear: through the executive order, President Trump is defunding the police.”
The lawsuit follows a legal precedent from 2017 when San Francisco successfully sued the Trump administration over a similar policy.
“At this moment in time, with unprecedented attacks on our democracy in our communities, we have two choices,” Elicker said. “We can hide, or we can stand up. In New Haven, when we see injustice, we stand up to it.”
The lawsuit said Trump’s executive order violates the Tenth Amendment, separation of powers, due process protections, and other policies.
