The seal of the U.S. Justice Department is seen on the podium in the Department's headquarters briefing room before a news conference with the Attorney General in Washington, January 24, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

By Jasper Ward

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department said on Monday it has sued Minnesota and state officials over its immigration sanctuary policies, the latest move in a legal campaign by Republican President Donald Trump's administration against jurisdictions run by Democrats.

The department said the state was carrying out policies that are illegal under federal law.

It alleged that the cities of Minneapolis, St. Paul and Hennepin County had refused to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, which resulted in the release of what it described as "dangerous criminals," including people convicted of assault and human trafficking. Those individuals, it said, would have normally been subject to removal from the U.S.

"Minnesota officials are jeopardizing the safety of their own citizens by allowing illegal aliens to circumvent the legal process,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called the lawsuit "baseless" political retaliation against the state, while pledging to respond in court. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the city will continue to fight for its immigrants, adding that it "will not back down."

Representatives from Minnesota's governor and attorney general offices, the Hennepin sheriff's office, and the mayor's office for St. Paul did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Over the summer, the Justice Department sued the cities of New York and Los Angeles over similar immigration policies. It also sued Boston earlier this month.

The administration has argued that sanctuary laws, which restrict the extent to which local law enforcement and government agencies can cooperate with federal immigration efforts, impede Trump's mass deportation agenda.

Brett Shumate, the assistant attorney general at the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said shielding undocumented migrants from federal law enforcement is "a blatant violation of the law that carries dangerous consequences."

(Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Mary Milliken, Lincoln Feast and Shri Navaratnam)