US President Donald Trump’s administration filed a complaint against New York City, its mayor Eric Adams, and other city representatives and officials on Thursday over its sanctuary city laws, alleging they are unconstitutional and violate federal immigration enforcement statutes.

Specifically, the Trump administration challenged New York City Administrative Code §§ 9-131, 9-205, 14-154, and 10-178, as well as New York City Police Department (NYPD) Operations Order No. 4. The administration requested a permanent injunction prohibiting their enforcement, alleging that the laws violate the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the Immigration Reform Act.

§9-205 generally forbids the Department of Probation from honoring civil immigration detainers by holding a person beyond the time they would otherwise be released. §9-131 and §14-154 impose the same prohibitions on the Department of Corrections and the NYPD, in addition to generally prohibiting them from honoring civil immigration detainers by holding a person beyond the time they would otherwise be released.

§10-178 bars agencies from “subject[ing] its officers or employees to the direction and supervision of the Secretary of Homeland Security primarily in furtherance of immigration enforcement” and from using city resources for immigration enforcement. The administration stated that NYPD Operations Order No. 4 generally prohibits members and the department from assisting civil immigration enforcement.

The Trump administration said that the US Constitution grants the federal government the power to make naturalization laws, “regulate Commerce with foreign Nations,” and “control and conduct relations with foreign nations,” and it requires the US president to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” The lawsuit asserted that the federal government has the power to make and enforce immigration laws based on such provisions and US Supreme Court precedent.

The administration argued that NYC’s sanctuary city laws, as immigration laws, are preempted by Congress’s immigration laws under the Supremacy Clause. It also used Supreme Court precedents to argue that the sanctuary city laws violate the Supremacy Clause by discriminating against the United States and obstruct “the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress.”

The Department of Homeland Security has promulgated a regulation requiring that when it issues an immigration detainer to a law enforcement agency, the agency “shall maintain custody of the alien for a period not to exceed 48 hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays in order to permit assumption of custody by the Department.”

The administration is emphasizing that NYC’s sanctuary city laws are threatening the safety of the public, federal officers, and the immigrants themselves by leaving illegal immigrants “out in the street” and making officers arrest them there rather than in a public jail. They also stress the “considerable financial impact on ICE’s operational costs [because now it] takes more time and more officers to effect arrests over the same number of aliens.”

Adams published the following press statement in response to the complaint:

Keeping New Yorkers safe [means] making sure they feel safe … no one should be afraid to dial 911, send their kids to school, or go to the hospital, and no New Yorker should feel forced to hide in the shadows. That’s why we support the essence of the local laws putting place by the City Council – but I have also been clear they go too far when it comes to dealing with those violent criminals on our streets and have urged the Council to reexamine them … So far, the Council has refused.