Two Boston metropolis councilors are shifting to determine a activity power geared toward mitigating federal funding cuts which have been threatened in gentle of the mayor’s refusal to conform with a Trump administration order to strip sanctuary protections.
Councilors Enrique Pepén and Benjamin Weber plan to introduce an order for a listening to at Wednesday’s Metropolis Council assembly that might “review federal funds received by the City of Boston and discuss the establishment of a task force to prevent or mitigate funding cuts.”
“The administration’s current focus on Boston and the continued resolve of our residents to push back against the injustices of the presidential administration make it clear that the back and forth between the City of Boston has only just begun,” the councilors’ listening to order states.
“It is imperative that the City Council is fully aware of the dollars at stake so we can take steps to ensure that the City of Boston can sustain itself during these trying times,” Pepén and Weber wrote.
The councilors talked about that town receives “hundreds of millions of dollars” from the federal authorities every year, however the Trump administration has made “several threats to withhold federal funding from states and cities that do not participate in the administration’s agenda of mass deportation.”
Pepén and Weber additionally referenced previous threats from President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, who, per the order, “has personally called for ‘hell’ to be brought to Boston and threatened to prosecute and/or arrest critics and challengers of the administration’s actions which have contested legality.”
Their requested listening to would come with testimony from consultants on metropolis funds, Wu administration officers and group members, and comes amid the newest battle between the Trump administration and sanctuary cities like Boston.
U.S. Legal professional Common Pam Bondi despatched a letter two weeks in the past ordering Boston’s mayor and different leaders of cities and states recognized by the Division of Justice as sanctuary jurisdictions to “eliminate laws, policies and practices that impede federal law enforcement.”
In Boston, the regulation on the books enshrining its sanctuary standing since 2014 is the Belief Act, which prohibits native police and different metropolis departments from cooperating with federal immigration authorities on the subject of detaining unlawful immigrants on civil warrants.
Metropolis officers say the regulation nonetheless permits for cooperation with the feds on sure prison issues like drug, weapons and human trafficking.
Mayor Michelle Wu responded to Bondi’s letter final Tuesday, the AG’s acknowledged deadline, however made it clear at a rally-like press convention that town had no intention of complying with the federal order, regardless of Bondi’s threats to chop federal funding from Boston and prosecute non-compliant metropolis officers.
“Stop attacking our cities to hide your administration’s failures,” Wu mentioned finally week’s press convention. “Unlike the Trump administration, Boston follows the law, and Boston will not back down from who we are or what we stand for. We will not back away from our community that has made us the safest city in the country.”
Wu additionally despatched a proper response letter to Bondi final Tuesday, saying that the Trump administration’s “false and continuous attacks” on Boston and different cities, together with efforts to slash federal funding and deploy navy personnel to metropolis streets had been “unprecedented” and illegal.
Metropolis Councilors Julia Mejia and Liz Breadon plan to introduce a decision at Wednesday’s assembly in assist of Wu’s letter to Bondi.
“We must continue to reaffirm that the City of Boston follows all federal, state and city laws and we stand with Mayor Michelle Wu in telling Attorney Bondi that Boston will never back down from being a beacon of freedom and a home for everyone,” Mejia and Breadon’s decision states.
On Friday, U.S. District Courtroom Decide William Orrick in San Francisco blocked the Trump administration’s try to deny funding to cities with sanctuary insurance policies, by extending a preliminary injunction to Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and 30 different cities and counties.
The Trump administration has appealed the primary ruling.
Wu welcomed the ruling in remarks made to reporters on Sunday. She mentioned final week that town depends on $300 million in federal funding every year.
The mayor mentioned this previous spring that she took steps to restrict this yr’s $4.8 billion metropolis finances to 4.4% progress in gentle of threatened federal cuts, a few of which her administration has already challenged in courtroom.
Bondi’s letter, nevertheless, characterizes Boston’s sanctuary insurance policies as a menace to nationwide safety, by limiting native cooperation with federal immigration enforcement efforts via town’s Belief Act.
“For too long, so-called sanctuary jurisdiction policies have undermined this necessary cooperation and obstructed federal immigration enforcement, giving aliens cover to perpetrate crimes in our communities and evade the immigration consequences that federal law requires,” Bondi wrote.
“You are hereby notified that your jurisdiction has been identified as one that engages in sanctuary policies and practices that thwart federal immigration enforcement to the detriment of the interests of the United States. This ends now.”
Appearing ICE Director Todd Lyons mentioned federal immigration authorities plan to “flood” Boston in response to Wu’s refusal to dismantle town’s sanctuary protections, as ordered by the Trump administration.
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