The Justice Department issued a notice Thursday to the mayors of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston over alleged antisemitism on campuses, the latest escalation of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on liberal cities and educational institutions.

A Justice Department-led task force requested the mayors discuss with federal officials their responses to antisemitism at their cities’ schools and colleges over the past two years, according to a news release. The statement says the mayors “may have failed to protect Jewish students from unlawful discrimination, in potential violation of federal law.”

“Too many elected officials chose not to stand up to a rising tide of antisemitism in our cities and campuses following the horrific events of October 7, 2023,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Actions have consequences – inaction does, too.”

The letter does not outline any specific steps the Justice Department might take against the other cities.

The Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, created via a Trump executive order, informed the Democratic leaders — who testified together in a congressional hearing on sanctuary policies for immigrants this month — that the task force is gathering information about unspecified incidents of antisemitism to determine whether federal intervention is warranted, according to the release.

To that end, task force leader Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, told the four mayors that the body is requesting a meeting to “quickly and effectively identify ways … (to) return safety, civility, and sanity to our nation’s schools.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Wednesday, the mayor condemned the arrest and possible deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s pro-Gaza encampments in New York.

“The fact that people are being detained for their political views, that is beyond dangerous and reprehensible,” Johnson, the first big-city U.S. mayor to endorse a Gaza ceasefire, told reporters at a City Hall news conference. “People should not be held for their political views, right? That is not the hallmark of our democracy.”

The Israel-Gaza war that began after the Hamas terrorist attacks on Oct. 7 sparked a rift between the left and moderate flanks of the Democratic Party, an undercurrent that ran through Chicago politics as well.

The progressive mayor cast a tie-breaker vote for a Gaza ceasefire resolution in City Council in early 2024 and described the conflict as “genocidal” ahead of the Democratic National Convention that summer. He also endorsed activist-backed calls for a Palestinian to speak at the blockbuster event, but those demands never materialized.

Last spring’s nationwide movement across college campuses over the Gaza war swept through Chicago and put Johnson to the test over how to balance outrage from pro-Israel groups who said encampments at the University of Chicago, DePaul University and the School of the Art Institute were unsafe and antisemitic with complaints from his leftist grassroots base that their cries for peace were being stifled.

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