The New York Civil Liberties Union is asking a judge to dismiss a federal lawsuit against the city of Rochester. This comes days after the city's attorneys filed a similar request.

The Department of Justice filed that lawsuit over Rochester's sanctuary city policy, claiming it violates the supremacy clause of the Constitution.

The suit, filed in April, stems from an incident in March when Rochester police officers assisted federal agents in detaining three people during a traffic stop. One of them was charged with illegal entry into the U.S.

Rochester Mayor Malik Evans and Rochester City Council President Miguel Melendez, both of whom are named in the lawsuit paperwork, argued the officer's actions violated Rochester's sanctuary city policies. The city claims federal law enforcement illegally used local police to help detain the individuals during the traffic stop.

Rochester established itself as a sanctuary city in 1986 and reaffirmed the designation during Donald Trump's first term with a unanimously passed City Council resolution. The 2017 resolution says the police “shall not engage in certain activities solely for the purpose of enforcing federal immigration laws, including not inquiring about the immigration status” of crime victims or witnesses unless needed for a criminal investigation. It also prohibits city employees from assisting in federal immigration enforcement.

The Department of Homeland Security published a web page last Thursday declaring more than 500 “sanctuary jurisdictions," including the city of Rochester, Monroe, Wayne and Yates counties, as being sanctuary jurisdictions that it claimed were in violation of federal law. That list has since disappeared from the federal website.