New York is one of a number of such US cities which prohibit local police from arresting people based on their immigration status and limit what information can be shared with federal authorities.
That has brought it in direct confrontation with Trump, who assailed undocumented migrants on the campaign trail, likening them to “animals” and “monsters,” and promised to launch the biggest deportation drive in US history.
The Trump justice department has previously sued Chicago, Los Angeles and several other Democratic-run cities with sanctuary policies along with the states of Colorado and Illinois.
In the lawsuit against New York City, which has a large immigrant community, the justice department said sanctuary policies impede federal efforts to enforce immigration law.
“New York City has released thousands of criminals on the streets to commit violent crimes against law-abiding citizens due to sanctuary city policies,” Attorney general Pam Bondi said in a statement.
“If New York City won’t stand up for the safety of its citizens, we will.”
Assistant attorney general Brett Shumate said New York City “has been at the vanguard of interfering with enforcing our immigration laws.
“Its efforts to thwart federal immigration enforcement end now,” Shumate said.
The Trump administration filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles’s sanctuary policies three weeks after the Republican president sent the National Guard to the city to quell protests against roundups of undocumented migrants by federal agents.
Trump has insisted that migrants are disproportionately responsible for crime, despite research showing US citizens commit more offenses per capita.
Earlier this year, the justice department ordered federal prosecutors in New York to drop bribery and fraud charges against Adams, the New York mayor.
The move triggered a wave of resignations in the Manhattan US attorney’s office and at the justice department in Washington.
Emil Bove, a top justice department official who ordered the charges to be dropped, has denied allegations that the decision was a “quid pro quo” in exchange for the Democratic mayor’s support for Trump’s immigration crackdown.