Boston’s mayor Michelle Wu has hit back sharply at the Trump administration’s legal threats over sanctuary city immigration policies, declaring that “Boston will not back down”.
Wu told a news conference outside Boston’s city hall on Tuesday: “The US attorney general asked for a response by today, so here it is: stop attacking our cities to hide your administration’s failures. Unlike the Trump administration, Boston follows the law. And Boston will not back down from who we are and what we stand for.”
Last week, the US Department of Justice sent letters to 13 states, from California to Rhode Island, and 22 local governments, from Boston to Seattle, that it has deemed “sanctuary jurisdictions”, threatening their leaders with prosecution for allegedly “undermining” and “obstructing” federal immigration enforcement.
Related: Pam Bondi threatens prosecution for leaders not complying with immigration officers
The letters warned that they could lose federal funds or face legal action if they do not assist with Donald Trump’s sweeping, aggressive and highly controversial immigration enforcement and mass deportation efforts.
Attorney general Pam Bondi has warned that she intends to prosecute political leaders who are not – in her view – sufficiently supportive of immigration enforcement.
Bondi’s letter asked recipients to provide a response by 19 August that “confirms your commitment with complying with federal law and identifies the immediate initiatives you are taking to eliminate laws, policies and practices that impede federal immigration enforcement”.
On Tuesday, Wu hit back publicly. The progressive Democratic mayor was elected in 2021 to run the state capital of Massachusetts, the first woman and first person of color to do so. At her press conference, she listed some of the what she deems the administration’s failures.
“Under the Trump administration, groceries are less affordable, housing is harder to build, cures for cancer are farther away, and good news on our economy has been as hard to find as the Epstein list,” she said, essentially taunting both the US president and Bondi about an alleged list of financial clients of the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Related: Trump is targeting sanctuary cities to settle political scores and potentially arrest his opponents
Wu’s address followed a blistering letter the mayor sent to Bondi earlier in the day, in which she asserted that Boston would not “bow down to unconstitutional threats or unlawful coercion” from the federal government.
She also addressed the Trump administration at the news conference, saying: “You are wrong on the law and you are wrong on safety. Most of all, you are wrong on cities.”
Trump has portrayed prominent, Democratic-run cities in recent days as being riddled with crime, following an extraordinary federal takeover of law enforcement in Washington DC.
Highlighting measures Boston has taken to tackle crime, often in partnership with federal authorities, Wu noted in her letter to Bondi Boston police department’s close work with state and federal law enforcement agencies “to address counterterrorism threats, protect our airport and our harbor, combat drug and human trafficking and hold perpetrators accountable for crimes”.
And blasting the Trump administration’s “false and continuous attacks on American cities”, Wu said cities like Boston were being “targeted by this federal administration for our refusal to bow down to unconstitutional threats and unlawful coercion”. “Boston will never back down from being a beacon of freedom, and a home for everyone,” she wrote.
