The Justice Department under acting Attorney General Todd Blanche filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging Maryland's so-called sanctuary policies. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
July 10 (UPI) -- The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Maryland on Thursday challenging the state's laws that limit local law enforcement's cooperation with immigration agents, the latest legal salvo in the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration.
Federal lawyers with the Justice Department's Civil Division have filed about 20 lawsuits against so-called sanctuary policies that the Trump administration argues violate the Constitution's Supremacy Clause, under which federal law supersedes state policies.
"Federal immigration officers merely enforce the laws that our nation's elected representatives in Congress passed, reflecting the will of 'We the People,'" Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a statement.
"When sanctuary jurisdictions enact laws to shield illegal aliens from federal law enforcement, it is not merely federal law that is violated, but the voices of everyday American voters silenced."
