The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles for its sanctuary city policies.
Along with the city, the lawsuit names Mayor Karen Bass and the Los Angeles City Council as defendants.
The backstory: Last December, Bass signed an ordinance titled “Prohibition of the Use of City Resources for Federal Immigration Enforcement,” an action the federal government says was to thwart Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from doing their jobs.
The big picture: The federal government argued in the complaint that the sanctuary city policies are illegal under federal law.
- The Department of Justice also argued that the city’s refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities contributed to the recent rioting and vandalism that led President Donald Trump to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles.
Driving the news: The lawsuit stems from direction from Attorney General Pam Bondi from her first day in office.
- Bondi instructed the Civil Division to identify state and local laws, policies and practices that facilitate violations of federal immigration laws or impede lawful federal immigration operations.
- The Department of Justice has already filed a series of lawsuits targeting sanctuary city policies across the country, including in New York and New Jersey.
What they’re saying: “Sanctuary policies were the driving cause of the violence, chaos, and attacks on law enforcement that Americans recently witnessed in Los Angeles,” Bondi said. “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.”
- Bill Essayli, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, said the lawsuit holds Los Angeles accountable for deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration law.
- “The United States Constitution’s Supremacy Clause prohibits the City from picking and choosing which federal laws will be enforced and which will not,” Essayli said. “By assisting removable aliens in evading federal law enforcement, the City’s unlawful and discriminatory ordinance has contributed to a lawless and unsafe environment that this lawsuit will help end.”
