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 fhttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/19/boston-sanctuary-cities-michelle-wu-trump-administrationollows 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.
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.