New Haven and Public Rights Project urge court to toss DOJ lawsuit targeting city’s public safety policies

NEW HAVEN, CT – Today, the City of New Haven and Mayor Justin Elicker asked a federal court to throw out a Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit targeting the city’s Welcoming City executive order — a local policy that directs city employees to focus on community safety instead of being forced to carry out federal immigration enforcement. Public Rights Project (PRP); Koskoff, Koskoff & Bider; the Peter Gruber Rule of Law Clinic; and Yale Law School are representing New Haven and the mayor.

In its motion asking the court to dismiss the federal government’s lawsuit, United States v. Connecticut, et al, the city argues that it is fully empowered to make policy decisions that protect and build trust with its residents; that the Trump administration cannot require cities to perform the federal government’s job of enforcing immigration law; and that the Constitution prohibits the federal government from commandeering municipal employees and resources for the Trump administration’s purposes.

“The federal government cannot force cities to conduct federal immigration enforcement,” said Toby Merrill, litigation director at Public Rights Project. “If the federal government were to unconstitutionally override local decisions, communities like New Haven would pay the price in reduced safety, less trust and strained services. Courts have repeatedly rejected these attempts to undermine local authority, and we’re asking this court to do the same. We’re proud to represent New Haven in this fight.”

New Haven’s executive order directs New Haven police and city officials to prioritize the health and safety of all residents — not carry out and be commandeered into federal immigration enforcement.

“New Haven is proudly a welcoming city, and we will not be intimidated or bullied into abandoning policies that are lawful, practical and essential to public safety,” said Mayor Elicker. “Our motion to dismiss makes clear that the Trump administration’s lawsuit is baseless, inaccurate and contrary to the values that keep our community strong. We will continue to defend our residents, our city and our right to ensure that every New Havener feels safe calling the police, seeking care, sending their children to school and accessing critical public services.”

The Welcoming city executive order:

• Requires city employees to follow all federal and state law;
• Keeps city resources focused on local needs, not federal priorities;
• Does not stop federal immigration agents from operating in New Haven — it only controls how city workers spend city time and money;
• Makes communities safer by ensuring all residents, including immigrants, feel comfortable contacting police and using city services.

“The Trump Administration wants to make New Haven an arm of its unconstitutional and chaotic immigration enforcement activities. It will fail,” said Chris Mattei, partner at Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder and lead counsel for the City of New Haven. “The Motion filed today affirms that New Haven’s resources will continue to be used to promote the safety and welfare of our community and that New Haven will not abandon its long history as a welcoming city.”

New Haven is not alone. The DOJ has filed more than a dozen similar lawsuits against cities, states and counties across the country — and has lost every one that has been decided, including in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Colorado and New Jersey. 

“America’s founding motto is ‘E Pluribus Unum, From Many One.’ Our city’s Welcoming City Order expresses the founding philosophy of New Haven, which welcomed my own family here more than six decades ago,” said Harold Hongju Koh of The Peter Gruber Rule of Law Clinic at Yale Law School. “We expect the court here to follow the many others across the country that have already dismissed, as baseless, similar Trump Administration lawsuits.”

This is the third city PRP has defended against this type of federal lawsuit — following a similar case in Boston, where a federal court recently dismissed the DOJ’s suit outright. PRP has also filed 7 amicus briefs backing local governments in 6 other cases nationwide.

Read the motion to dismiss here.

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