Chelsea, Somerville sue Trump administration for "politicized attack" on sanctuary cities
"Unless we storm the local sandwich shops they say they'll take away our federal funds, funds that we pay taxes for, no matter who it hurts in our community," said Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne at a news conference.
Both cities are being represented by Lawyers for Civil Rights.
"The Massachusetts cities of Chelsea and Somerville bring this action to prevent the federal Executive Branch from defunding their police forces and other essential public safety functions as part of a politicized attack on 'sanctuary jurisdictions,'" lawyers said in the complaint.
The cities stand to lose tens of millions of dollars if the Trump administration follows through on threats to withhold funding from sanctuary cities.
"President Trump and his agencies have said in no uncertain terms that he plans to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities," said Oren Sellstrom, the Litigation Director for Lawyers for Civil Rights.
Trump border czar targets Boston
The lawsuit comes days after President Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, had some harsh words for Boston and the city's police commissioner, Michael Cox, at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
"The police commissioner of Boston, you said you'd double down on not helping the law enforcement offices of ICE. I'm coming to Boston, I'm bringing hell with me," Homan said, prompting applause from the crowd. "You're not a police commissioner. Take that badge off your chest, put it in your desk drawer. Because you became a politician. You forgot what it's like to be a cop."
Mayor Wu defends police commissioner
Mayor Michelle Wu came to her commissioner's defense saying, "It's pretty clueless for someone to be insulting our police commissioner, whose decades of experience, whose leadership in the role and whose results with our amazing police department speak for themselves."
Regardless of rhetoric, Massachusetts law prevents local police officers from arresting or detaining people based solely on their immigration status.
Former Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations for ICE Boston, Bruce Foucart, says that law has undoubtedly made arrests more difficult and less safe for federal immigration officers.
"Why preclude law enforcement from cooperating with each other is beyond me. It's like asking the feds, it's like asking the state and locals to do this job with one hand tied behind their backs," Foucart said.
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Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The White House buys Ford Mustangs to recruit new ICE agents
The White House is spending over $120,000 to buy two Ford Mustang GT muscle cars in what it says is part of a "compelling" and "urgent" need to use the cars to entice people to join the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, also known as ICE. The vehicles were part of 'an immediate request by the White House, on Thursday, August 7, 2025,' according to the federal justification-and-approval documents, which also explain why the contract was awarded to a Washington, D.C.-area Ford dealership without using the typical competitive bidding process. "The agency's need for the services is so urgent and compelling that providing full and open competition would result in unacceptable delays and seriously hinder the Government's recruiting initiative," the documents read. It listed the price for the pair of vehicles at $121,450. Ford Motor Co. declined to comment on the federal government's purchase of the cars. The owner of the dealership the government purchased the cars from, Banister Ford of Marlow Heights, confirmed the sale of the two 2025 Mustang GTs to the federal government. The cars were delivered to the government a couple of weeks ago, just days after the request was made, Dan Banister, owner of Banister Automotive — which owns the Ford store in Suitland, Maryland — told the Detroit Free Press. "I didn't know it was the White House. Donald Trump didn't call me," Banister said of the goverment's purchase of the cars. "The way they found us was, we had to register with the federal government to be a provider of vehicles. We offer government discounts. Many times, it's a bidding process, but it looks like they were in a pinch and needed cars right away." Banister's store had what ICE was looking for in those vehicles already in its inventory. 'Eye-catching design' will attract recruits As part of the "One Big, Beautiful Bill" last month, Congress approved $30 billion for an ICE hiring spree to add some 14,000 immigration officers. According to the federal procurement documents, the agency intends to do the recruiting over the next two fiscal years. But low morale has plagued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel due to the high expectations, shifting priorities and job insecurity, according to published reporters. In a July 10 report in The Atlantic, it said, "Officers and agents have spent much of the past five months clocking weekends and waking up at 4 a.m. for predawn raids. Their top leaders have been ousted or demoted, and their supervisors — themselves under threat of being fired — are pressuring them to make more and more arrests to meet quotas set by the Trump adviser Stephen Miller." ICE, which initially prioritized catching criminals, has shifted its attention to civil immigration arrests under President Donald Trump. That has meant nabbing asylum seekers at court hearings or chasing day laborers through Home Depot parking lots "as angry onlookers attempt to shame ICE officers with obscenities, and activists try to dox them, officers are retreating further behind masks and tactical gear," The Atlantic reported. The government believes using Mustang GTs at recruitment events will bolster the job's appeal. 'The Ford Mustang GT enhances recruitment efforts in support of the USC Title 8 mission and HR 1 OBBBA recruiting, by serving as a bold, high-performance symbol of innovation, strength and modern federal service,' according to the federal procurement documents. 'Its eye-catching design increases public engagement at outreach events and helps attract top talent by conveying a culture of excellence and forward momentum.' This purchase comes after ICE spent more than $700,000 to customize a group of SUVs and pickup trucks to be used for recruitment, according to published reports last week. That included a Ford Raptor and a GMC Yukon that were "tricked out to mimic the look of Donald Trump's private Boeing 757," The Independent reported. It means they're painted navy blue, with red-and-white racing stripes and a gold ICE logo — the same color scheme of Trump's aircraft. The words 'President Donald J. Trump' are printed in gold on the rear window along with 'Defend the homeland' on the side. The trucks cost more than $500,000, with another $227,000 spent on custom automotive wraps, The Independent reported, citing federal procurement records. Needed immediately According to The Independent — which was first to report this story — one of the Mustangs has already been seen around D.C. on Monday evening, "with a gold ICE logo and the words 'Defend the homeland' on the side." In the government documents it said the cars will be used to transport staff and materials for recruitment events, career fairs and recruitment initiatives at various locations. 'Without timely access to these resources, our ability to attract and onboard qualified candidates will be severely hindered, ultimately impacting the agency's ability to fulfill its mission,' the document said of needing to buy the Mustangs without a bidding process. The government documents said Banister Ford of Marlow Heights was in a position to fulfill this requirement quickly because it had immediate availability of vehicles that 'fully meet ICE's specifications." It added that 'failure to approve this (Justification and Approval) request will result in significant disruption to ICE's recruitment efforts." How Banister got the sale Banister, who said his store is about a 25-minute drive southeast of the White House, had no idea his customer was ICE. 'We sell to a wide range of customers including individuals, businesses and government agencies. We don't take any political position on who purchases a vehicle," Banister, who owns four other dealerships that sell other brands in the Virginia area, told the Detroit Free Press. "We just want to provide a quality vehicle with professional service." Banister said the Mustangs are powerful cars that are fun to drive but "I don't know that would make people want to join ICE or not? I guess if I'm going out there trying to hire people to work and I bring a nice sporty car out there, that would get people to come talk to me.' More: Ford reveals a new race car inspired trim for its $325,000 Mustang More: Ford Bronco fan, 60, keeps customizing her 'Fiona' Banister said it was likely just luck that his dealership got this sale, but he said he is honored. "It just happened they saw our name in there and contacted us and I thought it was an honor," Banister said. "I love being in a position where we can help and the Mustang is a great vehicle.' Jamie L. LaReau is the senior autos writer who covers Ford Motor Co. for the Detroit Free Press. Contact Jamie at jlareau@ Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. To sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: White House buys Ford Mustangs to recruit new ICE agents Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's D.C. Goon Squads Are Un-American
When President Donald Trump first declared a crime emergency in the nation's capital and sent hundreds of federal law enforcement agents to patrol its streets, this district resident had a hard time taking it too seriously. The initial images of bored Drug Enforcement Administration agents strolling past perplexed joggers on the National Mall were more clownish than carceral. Local street resistance to the occupation was limited to a drunk guy throwing a sandwich at a federal agent. But inevitably, as this operation has dragged on, things have taken a darker turn. The sandwich-thrower was overcharged and rearrested in a needless, publicized show of force. Masked federal agents have set up an unconstitutional checkpoint, violently arrested at least one delivery driver, and filmed themselves tearing down a banner protesting their presence in the city. Each day, more and more National Guard members pour into the capital. The conversation about Trump's declared crime emergency has understandably, albeit unhelpfully, provoked a lot of discourse about how safe D.C. is, whether a federalized local police department will make it safer, whether federal agents are being deployed in the right places and going after the right crimes, and on and on. This incessant crime conversation has distracted from just how un-American Trump's show of force in the nation's capital is. Uniformed troops and masked federal agents doing routine law enforcement at the command of the president is just not how we do things in the United States. The entire point of the U.S. Constitution is to prevent the federal government from becoming a despotism, and one of the primary ways it does this is by limiting how many men with guns it has at its disposal. This is why the Constitution places strict constraints on maintaining a standing army. It's why there are only three crimes mentioned in the Constitution, none of which would plausibly require federal agents to patrol U Street. It's why questions of what to criminalize and who to prosecute were largely left up to the states. The Third Amendment is mostly treated as an anachronistic joke today. In fact, it is a load-bearing part of the Constitution that makes clear that the military and the police are different things and that Americans should not have to tolerate the presence of armed agents of the states as a routine part of daily life. Obviously we've deviated considerably from this ideal since the founding generation. The federal criminal code is now extensive. The feds' wars on drugs, terror, and immigration have grown the number of militarized federal agents doing law enforcement activities. Federal money has subsidized a similar trend of militarization of state and local police forces. Reason has been decrying this trend for decades. In his book Rise of the Warrior Cop, Radley Balko writes about how the trend of increased police militarization has eroded the "Symbolic Third Amendment" and the free society it protects. It's darkly ironic then that, after decades of politicians of both parties in D.C. gifting the federal government vast powers to police the rest of the country, a militarized federal police force is now being deployed on the streets of America's capital against its residents. This is why arguments about whether federal agents could be more effectively deployed in less visible, higher crime areas of the city are completely beside the point. The federal government acting as a beat cop is inimical to our constitutional design, regardless of how effective its efforts are. That D.C. is a federal district might seem to complicate this point. In fact, it reinforces it. Despite being a constitutionally peculiar special district, a lot of effort has been put into giving D.C. a local police force that does not practically function as an arm of the federal government. Even in the seat of federal power, it's understood that a force of federal agents policing everyday life is not something ordinary citizens should have to put up with. That Trump has the power to federalize the D.C. police or deploy the D.C. National Guard doesn't stop his actions from being authoritarian and offensive to the spirit of the Constitution, even if it doesn't violate the letter of it. It's also cold comfort that Trump's declared crime emergency is clearly mostly a performative act to rile up the libs and not a serious effort at combating crime. While the president is staging the performance, it's disconcerting that he's opted to cast himself as the villain in the play. Moreover, the longer federal agents are deployed on D.C. streets, the greater the odds that more serious abuses do happen. It's true that D.C. today is not as locked down as it has been in recent years. The police-enforced curfews during the George Floyd protests or the security cordons that sprang up after the January 6 riots were a lot more visible and heavy-handed. Excessive as those police actions were (particularly the latter), they were at least being done as an emergency response to widespread breakdowns in public order. Trump is rolling out the feds in D.C. to do routine law enforcement. That's un-American. The post Trump's D.C. Goon Squads Are Un-American appeared first on Solve the daily Crossword
The Hill
21 minutes ago
- The Hill
Democrats press DHS for ‘Alligator Alcatraz' information
Democratic lawmakers are pressing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for more information about how the Trump administration teamed up with the state of Florida to create a controversial detention facility for migrants in the middle of the Everglades. 'Brushing aside concerns from human rights watchdogs, environmentalist groups, and Tribal nations, [DHS] has greenlit the construction of this expansive detention facility that may violate detained individuals' human rights, jeopardize public and environmental health and violate federal law,' House and Senate Democrats wrote in a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem dated Wednesday. The detention facility, dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz,' opened in early July to house arrested migrants awaiting deportation. It was created through a state and federal partnership, with Florida officials leading oversight and construction, with DHS footing the bill. President Trump toured the facility when it opened, along with Noem. A federal judge last week temporarily halted expansion of the site after tribal and environmental groups filed a lawsuit over potential damage to wetlands. Located just south of Miami, Alligator Alcatraz quickly raised alarms about conditions for detainees in the hot, humid climate. Some whistleblowers have described worm-infested food, plumbing problems and other issues since its opening. 'The Everglades site was selected precisely because of its remote location and harsh surroundings, which Florida officials reportedly view as 'an ideal location to house and transport migrants,'' the Democrats wrote in their letter Wednesday. 'We ask that DHS promptly provide critical information for the American public to better understand this detention plan.' The letter was signed by more than five dozen members of Congress, led by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.). It requested that DHS respond to several questions by September 3.
