The U.S. Department of Justice sued the city of Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass and City Council members Monday, calling its sanctuary city law “illegal” and asking that it be blocked from being enforced.
The lawsuit, filed in California’s Central District federal court, said the country is “facing a crisis of illegal immigration,” but that its efforts to address it “are hindered by Sanctuary Cities such as the City of Los Angeles, which refuse to cooperate or share information, even when requested, with federal immigration authorities.”
Over the last month, immigration agents have descended on Southern California, arresting more than 1,600 immigrants and prompting protests. According to the lawsuit, L.A.’s refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities since June 6 has resulted in “lawlessness, rioting, looting, and vandalism.”
“The situation became so dire that the Federal Government deployed the California National Guard and United States Marines to quell the chaos,” the lawsuit states. “A direct confrontation with federal immigration authorities was the inevitable outcome of the Sanctuary City law.”
In a statement to Fox News, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi called the sanctuary policies “the driving cause of the violence, chaos, and attacks on law enforcement that Americans recently witnessed in Los Angeles.”
“Jurisdictions like Los Angeles that flout federal law by prioritizing illegal aliens over American citizens are undermining law enforcement at every level — it ends under President Trump,” Bondi said.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The federal lawsuit comes as the city’s elected officials have been weighing their own lawsuit against the Trump administration, one aimed at barring immigration agents from violating the constitutional rights of their constituents.
The City Council is scheduled to meet Tuesday to ask City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto to prioritize “immediate legal action” to protect L.A. residents from being racially profiled or unlawfully searched or detained.
Bass has been outspoken about the harm she says the immigration raids have been inflicting on her city, saying they have ripped families apart and created a climate of fear at parks, churches, shopping areas and other locations. She said the city was peaceful until federal agents began showing up at Home Depots, parking lots and other locations.
“I want to tell him to stop the raids. I want to tell him that this is a city of immigrants. I want to tell him that if you want to devastate the economy of the city of Los Angeles, then attack the immigrant population,” Bass said earlier this month.
