The U.S. Department of Justice sued the city of Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass and city council members on Monday, calling the Sanctuary Urban Act “illegal” and sought to stop it from being enacted.
The lawsuit filed in federal court for the Central District of California said the country is “at the crisis of illegal immigration,” but efforts to address it have been “stifled by sanctuary cities such as the city of Los Angeles.”
Last month, immigration agents descended to Southern California, arresting more than 1,600 immigrants and urged protests. The refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities in LA since June 6th has resulted in “lawlessness, riots, looting and vandalism,” according to the lawsuit.
“The situation has become so disastrous that the federal government has deployed the California State Guard and the US Marines to quell the chaos,” the lawsuit states. “The direct conflict with federal immigration authorities was an inevitable outcome of Sanctuary Urban Act.”
In a statement to Fox News, Atty. General Pam Bondi called the sanctuary policy “the cause of violence, confusion and the driving force behind the attacks on law enforcement that Americans have recently witnessed in Los Angeles.”
“Jurisdictions like Los Angeles, which disregard federal law by prioritizing illegal aliens over American citizens, are undermining law enforcement at all levels. That’s going to end under President Trump,” Bondy said.
Mayor La Karen Bass did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The federal lawsuit aims to prohibit immigration agents from violating the constitutional rights of their members as city elected officials are considering their own lawsuits against the Trump administration.
The city council is scheduled to hold a meeting on Tuesday. Hydee Feldstein Soto prioritizes “immediate legal action” to ensure that LA residents are not racially profiled or illegally searched or detained.
Bass is frank about the harm she says immigrant raids have been inflicted on her city, saying they tore the family apart and created an environment of terror in parks, churches, shopping areas and other places. She said the city was peaceful until federal agents began appearing at Home Depots, parking lots and elsewhere.
“I want to tell him to stop the attack. I want to tell him that this is an immigrant city. If I want to destroy the city’s economy, I want to attack the immigrant population,” Bus said earlier this month.
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