The Trump administration on Monday sued the City of Los Angeles, accusing it of violating federal law with its “sanctuary city” policies by discriminating against immigration authorities and restricting cooperation granted to other law enforcement agencies.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles, claims sanctuary laws are illegal and “obstruct the Federal Government’s enforcement of federal immigration law and impede consultation and communication between federal, state, and local law enforcement officials that is necessary for federal officials to carry out federal immigration law and keep Americans safe.”
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The filing asks the court to declare Los Angeles’ policies invalid under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which the suit says “prohibits the city and its officials from obstructing the federal government’s ability to enforce laws that Congress has enacted or to take actions entrusted to it by the Constitution.”
In a statement to Fox News, Attorney General Pam Bondi blamed sanctuary policies for the recent violence surrounding federal immigration raids in the Southland.
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“Sanctuary policies were the driving cause of the violence, chaos, and attacks on law enforcement that Americans recently witnessed in Los Angeles,” she 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.”
According to the federal government, then-candidate Donald J. Trump campaigned and won the presidential election in 2024 “on a platform of deporting the millions of illegal immigrants the previous administration permitted, through its open borders policy, to enter the country unlawfully.
“Days after now President Trump won the Nov. 5, 2024 election, the Los Angeles City Council, wishing to thwart the will of the American people regarding deportations, began the process of codifying into law its sanctuary city policies.”
The lawsuit names Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the Los Angeles City Council, and Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson as defendants.
CNS contributed to this story
