Boston Police Commissioner: Federal Aid Won't Be 'Undone' over Sanctuary Status

Despite the Department of Justice’s freeze on funding to sanctuary cities, Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox says he doesn’t know why his department’s ties with federal law enforcement partners would be “undone.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi froze funding to “sanctuary jurisdictions” on her first day in charge earlier this month, advising cities and towns “should not receive access to federal grants” if they have limited cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Touting how Boston is among the “safest major cities in the country,” Cox said he is optimistic his department will continue to receive help from the feds and admitted he can “only control” his budget.

“Boston is one of the safest major cities in the country because of the partnership we have with the public, the partnership we have with other law enforcement people here in the city, and quite honestly, the partnerships we have with the federal government and all our federal partners,” Cox said on WCVB’s “On the Record” segment that aired Sunday.

“We could not be as safe as we are without the help of the federal government,” the commissioner added. “They are partners with us, so I don’t know why that would be undone. But when it comes to financing and income flows into our city, I can only control what we can control, whether it’s the City Council, through a budget process every year, or however, the way people talk about funding the police department.”

Boston is a sanctuary city under the Trust Act, a 2014 local law prohibiting city police and other departments from cooperating with ICE and federal agencies on civil immigration detainers.

The DOJ is pursuing enforcement actions against cities that get in the way of federal immigration crackdown efforts, according to a memo Bondi released on her first day. The department has also stopped the distribution of funds until it completes a review, the Feb. 5 memo revealed.

“Actions that impede federal efforts to enforce immigration law threaten public safety and national security,” Bondi’s memo stated. “State and local jurisdictions must comply with applicable immigration-related federal laws.”

The DOJ announced last week that it sued New York state over what Bondi described as a lack of cooperation with immigration officials.

Cox emphasized in his interview with WCVB that his department has “pretty defined rules” and that it has to “abide by the law here in the state,” meaning it doesn’t “enforce civil detainers regarding federal immigration law.”

Under a state Supreme Judicial Court ruling in 2017, Massachusetts authorities cannot arrest or hold a person based on a federal civil immigration detainer.

Detainers, per the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, request that local or state law enforcement “maintain custody of the noncitizen for a period not to exceed 48 hours beyond the time the individual would otherwise be released.”

“From our perspective,” Cox said, “what we tell anyone who comes to visit our city or lives in our city is that we don’t care about your immigration status. What we do care about, is ‘Are you a victim of crime in our city, or are you a victimizer?’ We will hold you accountable for that, no matter what your immigration status is.”

Mayor Michelle Wu and the mayors of Chicago, Denver, and New York City have confirmed they will testify before a Congressional oversight committee investigating sanctuary city policies, scheduled for March 5.

“The Boston Police Department partners every day with community groups and all levels of law enforcement to protect our city and our residents,” Wu said earlier this month, “and I look forward to highlighting their hard work and successes.”

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