WASHINGTON, July 10 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Justice sued Maryland on Thursday over what President Donald Trump’s administration cast as the state’s so-called sanctuary policies that it alleged were interfering with the federal government’s immigration crackdown.
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Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche has asked the DOJ’s civil division to identify state and local laws, policies and practices “that facilitate violations of federal laws or impede lawful federal operations,” the DOJ said in a statement.
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The DOJ filed the lawsuit on Thursday, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland Northern Division.
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The office of Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown declined to comment.
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The lawsuit is the latest in a legal campaign that the Republican president’s administration has waged over laws adopted by so-called sanctuary jurisdictions run by Democrats.
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The administration contends that these policies are impeding Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
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The “sanctuary” movement dates back to the 1980s when U.S. churches sheltered Central American migrants who had fled civil strife and feared deportation from the U.S.
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The Trump administration applies that label broadly to states and localities that have laws, policies or regulations that restrict cooperation with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to track down and arrest immigrants.
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ICE, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, has been the face of Trump’s immigration crackdown and deportation drive.
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Rights groups have said the crackdown violates due process and free speech rights and creates an unsafe environment, particularly for ethnic minorities, who have raised concerns of racial profiling.
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While Trump campaigned in 2024 on a platform of stopping illegal immigration, his administration has also attempted to make legal immigration more difficult – for example, by imposing new and expensive fees for applicants of certain work visas.
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Trump has said his actions are aimed at improving domestic security and protecting jobs for U.S. citizens.
Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Christopher Cushing.
