the federal government's immigration fight with New Jersey is escalating the US Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against four New Jersey cities alleging their immigration policies obstruct the government from enforcing federal immigration law by shielding quote illegal aliens within the Garden State calling their so-called sanctuary city policies a frontal assault on the federal immigration laws and the federal authorities that administer them the suit names Newark Jersey City Hoboken and Patterson as well as the city's four mayors and council presidents alleging the four cities have unconstitutional policies that bar local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration agents hoboken Mayor Ravi Bala defended his city's policy today saying "We won't back down."

While New York Mayor Raz Baraka today called the lawsuit absurd and denied the city's policies stand in the way of public safety the suit comes just two weeks after a clash outside a recently opened ICE detention facility in Newark [Music]