as we reported on Friday the Trump administration is suing four New Jersey cities and their elected officials over their so-called sanctuary policies the lawsuits target Jersey City Newark Hoboken and Patterson arguing the local governments are violating immigration laws by prohibiting police from cooperating with ICE agents now the suit was filed just after the Justice Department brought charges against New Jersey Congresswoman Lam Monica MacGyver for her role in an incident outside a New York detention facility earlier this month and it comes as the Trump administration ramps up its challenges to local sanctuary laws senior political correspondent David Cruz has the details the Justice Department has its sights set on New Jersey from the first ICE raids of the new administration to the arrest and release of the mayor charges brought against the congresswoman and now suing four of the state's largest cities and their governing bodies for their so-called sanctuary city policies on the ground they are impeding the ability of federal officers to do their job says the government they being Newark Jersey City Patterson and Hoboken where Ravi Bala is the mayor there is no evidence not even evidence asserted to back up that allegation there is nothing whatsoever that the Hoboken Police Department is doing to impede interfere or obstruct any operations whatsoever of the federal government local police in New Jersey function under the immigrant trust directive of 2018 which limits the sharing of citizenship status and other information in many police community interactions progressives and other activists have been calling for the directive to be codified into state law as the Immigrant Trust Act democrats who control the legislature have slow rolled that idea though part of their overall lean to the right which concerns advocates like Amy Torres of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice i think what's really worrying is that we are in the midst of a primary um and we have some candidates who say they would support the Immigrant Trust Act and hope that it's implemented before they even get into office and then we have other candidates including you know what the polls say are leading candidates who claim that they don't want to support the immigrant trust act because it might get litigated it's an argument that gubernatorial candidate Mikey Cheryl made here recently with push back from one of her main rivals what we have right now with the executive order is something that has been court tested by Republican appointees in court if you This is not a talking point aclu disagrees with you what we have here is a court tested order and we know that any legislation right now opens this up to attacks in our court system for Republicans even those not endorsed by Donald Trump the charges are perfect in tone and timing we as New Jersey residents are dealing with a governor and a legislature and a lot of these cities that refuse to obey the federal law so we're suffering as a result of this and I I commend the Trump administration for acting tom Hullman said he would alina Hoba said she would they are as random as the federal administration has been about who it charges sues detains or pardons it's hard to say how much energy will remain behind these efforts after US Attorney Alina Haba's interim status is set to expire in July right now it's got Democrats playing defense again on an issue that doesn't seem to serve their political ends this election cycle i'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight News [Music]