WASHINGTON—Two hardcore sanctuary cities in Massachusetts—Chelsea and Somerville—faced with a cut-off of federal funding by the Trump Administration because of their sanctuary policies, have brought suit in Massachusetts federal district court, demanding that the court order their funding continued even as they continue to pursue noncooperation policies aimed at protecting criminal aliens and illegal aliens from federal law enforcement. The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) has submitted a brief in the case opposing that effort.
IRLI points out in its brief that the cities have no standing to ask the court to protect their sanctuary policies, because those policies, being in conflict with federal immigration law, violate the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. Thus, the court does not even have jurisdiction to save the cities from the choice Trump has put them to: either lose the funding or cease protecting illegal aliens and criminal aliens from federal law enforcement.
“Rather than simply comply with federal law and the Constitution, these cities have run to court to keep the money flowing even as they go on breaking the law,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. “It doesn’t work like that. No court has jurisdiction to grant an injunction to enable a party’s further lawbreaking. We hope the court sees that these policies flatly violate the Constitution, and denies relief.”
The case is City of Chelsea v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-10442 (D. Mass.).
