Thursday, 03 July 2025

Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against ‘Sanctuary City’

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The Department of Justice on Monday filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles over its ‘sanctuary city’ policy, alleging it interferes with federal immigration enforcement.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and City Council members were also named in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit follows chaotic riots in Los Angeles against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers that prompted President Trump to mobilize the National Guard.

“The challenged law and policies of the City of Los Angeles 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,” the lawsuit says, according to ABC News.

“Sanctuary policies were the driving cause of the violence, chaos, and attacks on law enforcement that Americans recently witnessed in Los Angeles,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said.

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“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,” she added.

ABC News noted:

The lawsuit is targeting Ordinance Number 188441, which prohibits city resources, including personnel, from being used for immigration enforcement. The DOJ is seeking a permanent injunction barring the city from enforcing the ordinance.

“Today, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles, California, @MayorOfLA Karen Bass, and the Los Angeles City Council over policies that Los Angeles enacted shortly after President Donald J. Trump’s reelection to interfere with the federal government’s enforcement of its immigration laws,” the Justice Department stated, according to NewsNation correspondent Ali Bradley.

A closer look:

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More from the Los Angeles Times:

L.A.’s sanctuary city law was proposed in early 2023, long before Trump’s election, but finalized in the wake of his victory in November.

Under the ordinance, city employees and city property may not be used to “investigate, cite, arrest, hold, transfer or detain any person” for the purpose of immigration enforcement. An exception is made for law enforcement investigating serious offenses.

The ordinance bars city employees from seeking out information about an individual’s citizenship or immigration status unless it is needed to provide a city service. They also must treat data or information that can be used to trace a person’s citizenship or immigration status as confidential.

In the lawsuit, federal prosecutors allege that the city’s ordinance and other policies intentionally discriminate against the federal government by “treating federal immigration authorities differently than other law enforcement agents,” by restricting access to property and to individual detainees, by prohibiting contractors and sub-contractors from providing information, and by “disfavoring federal criminal laws that the City of Los Angeles has decided not to comply with.”

“The Supremacy Clause prohibits the City of Los Angeles and its officials from singling out the Federal Government for adverse treatment — as the challenged law and policies do — thereby discriminating against the Federal Government,” the lawsuit says. “Accordingly, the law and policies challenged here are invalid and should be enjoined.”

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Trump’s Department of Justice contends that L.A.’s sanctuary city ordinance goes much further than similar laws in other jurisdictions, by “seeking to undermine the Federal Government’s immigration enforcement efforts.”


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