Mayor Karen Bass recovered from the Justice Department on Tuesday, calling for a lawsuit against the city of President Trump’s “all-out attack on Los Angeles.”
Bus said she and other city leaders would most likely not be threatened by lawsuits attempting to override the sanctuary policy that bars city resources from being used in federal immigration enforcement.
The mayor appeared in front of reporters at city hall, attacked federal agents to “grab people randomly,” and arrested immigrants who “take Angeleno through the parking lot,” and appeared in court for their annual check-in. She also swipes at Stephen Miller, Trump’s vice-chief of staff. Stephen Miller is from Santa Monica, a Santa Monica native who is widely regarded as an architect of radical immigration crackdowns.
“It’s basically indiscriminate because we know that US citizens are in custody,” Bass said. “It’s the broad net they’ve cast to meet the 3,000 Stephen Miller quotas a day that they’re in custody nationwide.”
The LA mayor has been in conflict with the Trump administration since early June, when federal immigration agents launched a string of raids in Southern California, urging protests in Los Angeles, Paramount and other communities. Her latest remarks a day after Trump Department’s Justice Department sued the city in sanctuary law, argued that it hampered the federal government’s ability to combat the “illegal immigration crisis.”
In the lawsuit, federal prosecutors accused the city council of trying to stop the will of the American people, claiming that Trump won the election on a platform that deports “millions of illegal immigrants.” They also alleged that LA’s refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities led to “lawlessness, riots, looting and vandalism” during the anti-ice demonstrations.
White House spokesman Abigail Jackson opposed Bus’ claims, saying that Bus “should thank President Trump for helping dangerous criminals out of the streets of L.A..”
“The only ‘assault’ being committed is from the radical leftists of the bus who are simply doing their job and attacking Ice Officers for enforcing federal immigration laws,” Jackson said. “Thanks to bass-like inflammatory rhetoric, ice officers are facing a 500% increase in assault.”
Elected officials in Los Angeles, Pasadena, Huntington Park and other communities have condemned the attack, tore families, disrupt public life and suffocating economic activity. In some communities, the July 4th fireworks show was cancelled for fear of an ice attack that would destroy the event.
Even Trump supporters are beginning to express concern. Last week, six Republicans in the state legislature sent a letter to Trump urging him to focus on targeting violent criminals during his immigration crackdown.
From June 1 to June 10, 722 people were arrested by immigration agents in the Los Angeles area, according to immigration customs enforcement data obtained through the UC Berkeley Law’s deportation data project. A time analysis of the numbers showed that 69% of those arrested during that period were not criminally convicted, while 58% were never charged with a crime.
In Los Angeles, the Sanctuary Ordinance prohibits city employees from seeking information about individual citizenship or immigration status unless they are required to provide city services. You must also deal with data or information that can be used to track a person’s citizenship or immigrant status as secret.
Trump has been trying to break the state’s sanctuary policy since they were enacted.
In 2019, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a federal challenge to Senate Bill 54. The Supreme Court refused to take up the case the following year.
In another case, the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Trump administration may not force the city of LA to force immigrants as a condition to receive federal police grants.
City Councilman Tim Makosker, who worked for the city’s lawyers’ office for several years, said Tuesday he viewed Trump’s lawsuit as a promotional stunt.
“There’s over 100 years of case law that says it’s a baseless lawsuit,” he said.
Times staff writer Rachel Ulanga contributed to this report.
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