Sacramento, July 1
The US Justice Department has sued the City of Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass, and the City Council, asking a federal judge to strike down the city's "sanctuary" ordinance on the grounds it obstructs federal immigration enforcement.
Filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California, the lawsuit on Monday argued that Los Angeles violated the Constitution's Supremacy Clause and two federal information-sharing statutes by forbidding local police and other agencies from cooperating with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unless a suspect faces serious felony charges.
The Justice Department sought a court order blocking the ordinance, which took effect on December 9, 2024, after a unanimous council vote.
US Attorney General Pamela Bondi said the policy was "the driving cause of the violence, chaos, and attacks on law enforcement that Americans recently witnessed in Los Angeles," according to a press statement issued on Monday. She called the suit part of President Donald Trump's pledge to "end lawless sanctuary jurisdictions."
Los Angeles officials sharply disputed that narrative. "To characterise what is going on in our city as a city of mayhem is just an outright lie," Bass told the Los Angeles Times on June 12 while visiting demonstrators denouncing recent immigration raids. The mayor argued that federal swoops "terrorise families and harm our economy."