A dozen Mass. cities are ‘on notice' over sanctuary laws, feds say
The Trump administration placed Boston, 11 other towns and cities in Massachusetts, and more than 500 communities across the country 'on notice' Thursday over their laws dealing with immigration enforcement, accusing them of violating federal law by providing sanctuary to undocumented immigrants.
Federal authorities said the 'lawless' jurisdictions should expect to receive 'formal notification' of noncompliance with federal law, along with demands that local officials revise any policies out of step with federal immigration statutes.
'These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens,' U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement Thursday.
The announcement followed up on an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last month directing the Department of Homeland Security to publish a list of jurisdictions that decline to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
Local officials in such jurisdictions, often known as sanctuary cities, argue that by avoiding cooperation with immigration agents on noncriminal matters, they allow undocumented residents to feel comfortable interacting with police without fear of deportation.
Cities are safer when all members of the public are willing to call and help police, proponents of sanctuary policies say.
Read more: Sanctuary or not, immigrant fears transcend borders in Chelsea, Revere
In Boston, for example, police are barred from asking members of the public about their immigration status or assisting federal agents with civil immigration enforcement.
Boston's law does not prevent police from assisting immigration authorities with criminal investigations into drugs, weapons, human trafficking, or other matters.
Read more: Boston's Trust Act: What it is and how it works
The list of sanctuary jurisdictions included communities in nearly three dozen states, including all six in New England. In Massachusetts, the communities identified by the Trump administration were:
Amherst
Boston
Cambridge
Chelsea
Concord
Holyoke
Lawrence
Newton
Northampton
Orleans
Somerville
Springfield
The government said Massachusetts as a whole also qualified as a sanctuary jurisdiction, potentially referring to a ruling from the state's highest court barring any police department from detaining someone at the request of federal officials but absent a warrant.
The government further listed every county in the state as a sanctuary jurisdiction, excluding Hampden County.
The list was based on a number of factors, including whether the communities self-identified as sanctuary jurisdictions, how much they comply with federal immigration law, whether they had restrictions on information sharing with the immigration enforcement authorities, and what protections they provide people in the country without documentation, federal officials said.
The Trump administration has attempted to pull federal funding from some sanctuary communities. Cities have contested the moves in court, arguing they have no responsibility to enforce federal immigration law.
Federal departments and agencies will be tasked with identifying federal grants or contracts with the jurisdictions and suspending or terminating the flow of money, according to Trump's executive order.
ICE takes two into custody in Amherst in crackdown on 'sanctuary' communities
Man helped kill 11 people, mostly teens, in Brazil. Now, he's in US prison for perjury
Arrested by ICE? Witness an arrest? These are your rights
Sen. Warren, Mass. pols demand answers from Trump on 'attacks on international students'
Mass. Gov. Healey slams ICE over migrant arrests on Nantucket, Vineyard
Read the original article on MassLive.
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Washington Post
20 minutes ago
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Top US universities raced to become global campuses. Under Trump, it's becoming a liability
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The university called Trump's latest action banning entry into the country to attend Harvard 'yet another illegal retaliatory step taken by the Administration in violation of Harvard's First Amendment rights.' In a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's previous attempt to block international students at Harvard, the university said its foreign student population was the result of 'a painstaking, decades-long project' to attract the most qualified international students. Losing access to student visas would immediately harm the school's mission and reputation, it said. 'In our interconnected global economy,' the school said, 'a university that cannot welcome students from all corners of the world is at a competitive disadvantage.' ___ The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. 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Business Insider
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Trump-Musk Alliance Unravels Over ‘Big Beautiful Bill'
(Bloomberg) -- From the moment Donald Trump and Elon Musk joined forces, betting in Washington held that the president's bond with the First Buddy who bankrolled his comeback election win wouldn't last. ICE Moves to DNA-Test Families Targeted for Deportation with New Contract Next Stop: Rancho Cucamonga! US Housing Agency Vulnerable to Fraud After DOGE Cuts, Documents Warn Where Public Transit Systems Are Bouncing Back Around the World The Global Struggle to Build Safer Cars The breakup finally arrived this week, an escalating tit-for-tat between the world's richest man and the president of the US, who spent much of Thursday sniping at one another via social media posts and cameras in the Oval Office. Speaking to reporters, Trump pronounced himself 'very disappointed' in Musk over the billionaire's harsh criticism of a Republican tax and spending bill. Posting on X, his social media platform, Musk declared that Trump wouldn't have won a second term without his help. 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Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist who was deputized in 2017 to confront Musk about his demands for EV and battery mandates, said he cautioned Trump and his inner circle about the entrepreneur after the 2024 election. 'I warned people in the transition, this guy is unpredictable, immature and a narcissist, and he'd turn on anybody — including the president — when it suited him,' says Bannon, who has frequently criticized Musk on his 'War Room' podcast. Bannon says Musk's downfall from his status as 'Chief Buddy' was inevitable, because he could not produce the $1 trillion in budget cuts he claimed he could during the transition. 'He was too incompetent and lied about being able to find a trillion dollars of cuts in waste, fraud and abuse,' says Bannon. 'He misled everybody, including the president.' Trump's Orbit Administration officials who have bristled at Musk's power and bedside manner have been moving to reassert their influence in the executive branch since he announced his departure from DOGE, people familiar with the matter said. That includes the installation of a close associate of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles as chief of staff at NASA – an agency that is crucial to SpaceX, a company that makes up a third of his net worth. People familiar with the matter said the withdrawal of the nomination of Jared Isaacman, a Musk ally who was poised to run the space agency, was driven by Sergio Gor – the director of the Presidential Personnel Office, with whom Musk had sparred during his DOGE tenure. 'A lot of Musk's power stemmed from the fact that he was seen as an extension of Trump,' said Stephen Myrow, who runs Beacon Policy Advisers. 'But now that there's distance between them, that power might be waning.' 'I always talk about the 'evolving orbit' around Trump – people are always drifting in and out,' Myrow added. 'I wouldn't say Musk's relationship with Trump is severed. But between Isaacman's nomination being pulled and his public criticisms of the tax bill, he looks to be in the waning phase of his orbit.' Earlier: Former NASA Nominee Suggests Ties to Musk Caused His Ouster A White House official in an email pointed to multiple past donations that Isaacman had made to Democrats, suggesting that was the reason his nomination was nixed. In a podcast interview Wednesday, Isaacman said he didn't believe that was the reason, given the information had long been publicly available. 'President Trump is the ultimate decision maker on who has the privilege of serving in his historic administration,' White House spokesperson Liz Huston said. 'Any claims to the contrary are completely false.' Musk didn't respond to a message seeking comment. On X, his social media platform, one user said Isaacman's removal was a 'gut punch for the space agency,' to which Musk responded with a '100' emoji, indicating he agreed 100%. 'At Great Personal Cost' The fissure caps a roller-coaster 11 months from Musk's endorsement of Trump in July of 2024. Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars to elect Trump and Republicans in 2024, and when the once and future president defeated Kamala Harris in November's election, he turned to Musk to lead an effort to slash the size and scope of government. Musk scythed through the federal bureaucracy while Trump unleashed a flurry of executive actions, each seeking to dismantle the administrative state at what the White House came to call 'Trump speed.' Yet swift progress on conservative priorities came with a price tag for Musk, who has seen his own net worth plummet in part because of reputational tarnish at home and abroad from his political actions and affiliation with Trump. Musk's net worth — much of it tied to the performance of Tesla — has dropped an estimated $64.1 billion so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It's the largest on-paper loss of any of the world's 500 richest people. And now, on his top political focus point of deficit reduction, any success Musk can claim — achieved, in his own words, 'at great personal cost and risk' — may be drowned out by the president's own signature legislation. The Congressional Budget Office projected that the House-passed tax and spending bill at the center of Trump's legislative agenda would add more than $2.4 trillion to US budget deficits over the next 10 years, slashing revenues by $3.67 trillion while only cutting spending by $1.25 trillion. That's way above even DOGE's most optimistic savings estimates. Its government website listing estimated savings states that DOGE has saved taxpayers about $180 billion year-to-date. However its 'Wall of Receipts' — a line-by-line list of contracts, grants and leases canceled since Inauguration Day — only accounts for less than half of that number. Adding to the risk for Musk's bottom line, Trump's bill would wipe out some valuable tax incentives that bolster his own companies. Musk personally appealed to House Speaker Mike Johnson to save tax credits for electric vehicles, according to a person familiar with the matter, but ultimately lost that fight. In an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday, Johnson did not confirm whether Musk had approached him over the credits, but said the two would speak later in the day, adding that Musk seems 'pretty dug in right now, and I can't quite understand the motivation behind it.' Musk's criticism of the spending package built slowly. On Tuesday, however, Musk lashed out, posting on his social media platform, X, that the bill was 'pork-filled' and 'a disgusting abomination.' Adding insult to injury for the White House, Musk has embraced the very argument that the administration has been trying to combat, noting the bill would significantly widen the federal budget deficit. By Wednesday afternoon, Musk was posting about 'debt slavery' and sharing an image of Uma Thurman holding a samurai sword — the poster for the film 'Kill Bill.' Widening Rift The rift between the two billionaire showmen — each renowned for seeking out the spotlight, and not for sharing it — had seemed to be widening for a while. Even as Musk embraced his DOGE role and continued making periodic appearances at the White House, he broke with some of Trump's policies. Musk has criticized tariffs, the primary tool in Trump's economic agenda, but one that has shown the potential for massive disruption in markets Musk moves in, including those for batteries critical to the fate of Tesla's automotive and energy units. An outside Trump adviser said the president remained furious about an incident, reported by The New York Times, in which Musk angled to obtain a classified briefing from the Pentagon about the upshot of a war with China, where Musk has extensive economic interests, especially via Tesla. As public furor grew over DOGE's unilateral cuts to federal agencies, Trump publicly reined Musk in, asserting that cabinet officials would have final say over proposed reductions. In a May 20 appearance at the Qatar Economic Forum, Musk told Bloomberg's Mishal Husain he intended to pull back from political giving, only months after spending nearly $300 million to boost Trump's successful campaign for the White House. Sour Taste Behind the scenes, Musk's sojourn through the West Wing left a sour taste for some officials, according to the outside adviser and one person within the administration. The outside adviser particularly noted Musk's brusque treatment of Wiles, who managed Trump's victorious campaign before joining the administration. It was a longtime Wiles ally, Brian Hughes, who was sent to serve as NASA chief of staff, a position from which he could serve as a check in an agency that is central to SpaceX's fortunes. A senior White House official said Wiles and Musk had a cordial and collaborative relationship, and that the chief of staff met weekly with the tech entrepreneuer as he led DOGE. The official said Hughes had long wanted to work at NASA, and that his placement there was not an effort to keep tabs on Musk and SpaceX. A person familiar with SpaceX discounted the chance that bad blood between Musk and Trump would have an immediate negative effect on the company, because it has carved out such a dominant position in the launch business even as corporate rivals have struggled. But the person said there is frustration that the company's brand has been damaged, first with Democrats who were appalled by Musk's embrace of Trump and DOGE's tactics, and now with Trump supporters in Washington, who will likely side with the president over Musk. But Musk's time with Trump has already yielded benefits in other ways, said Myrow, especially in areas where the administration or DOGE pulled the plug on aspects of the regulatory state that had previously tangled with his companies. 'For Musk personally, the SEC stuff went away,' Myrow said, referring to Securities and Exchange Commission investigations. 'And he's long wanted to turn X into an 'everything app,' and now a lot of the regulations that would have inhibited that are going away.' --With assistance from Nancy Cook, Erik Wasson, Annmarie Hordern, Lisa Abramowicz, Michael Shepard and Derek Wallbank. (Updates with Musk, Trump remarks in paragraphs 3, 6; Bannon remarks in paragraphs 12-14) Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert Wants to Donate His Billions—and Walk Again YouTube Is Swallowing TV Whole, and It's Coming for the Sitcom Millions of Americans Are Obsessed With This Japanese Barbecue Sauce Is Elon Musk's Political Capital Spent? Trump Considers Deporting Migrants to Rwanda After the UK Decides Not To ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
