New Haven Urges Court To Toss Trump Lawsuit Targeting City’s Welcoming City, Public Safety Policies

NEW HAVEN, CT — Mayor Justin Elicker announced the city of New Haven has urged a federal court to toss a Justice Department 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.

Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder; the Peter Gruber Rule of Law Clinic at Yale Law School; and Public Rights Project are representing New Haven and Mayor Elicker pro bono in the lawsuit, United States vs State of Connecticut, et al, which the Trump administration filed on April 13 against the City of New Haven, Elicker, and other defendants.

In its motion asking the court to dismiss the federal government’s lawsuit, 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.

"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," Elicker said. "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."

New Haven’s executive order directs New Haven police and city officials to prioritize the safety and health of all residents — not carry out and be commandeered into federal immigration enforcement."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 the only municipality in Connecticut to be targeted in this manner by the U.S. DOJ.. However, the DOJ has filed more than a dozen similar lawsuits against cities and states 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. A federal court recently threw out the DOJ's similar lawsuit against Boston.

Elicker said. Contrary to President Trump’s assertions, we know our immigrant neighbors are overwhelmingly good, hard-working, productive members of our community who make our city stronger. Regardless, if any individual commits a violent crime in New Haven, we arrest them and bring them to justice, irrespective of their immigration status. That’s what we’ve always done as a city – and that’s what we’ll continue to do as a city.”