The U.S. Department of Justice sued the city of Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass and City Council members Monday, calling L.A.’s sanctuary city law “illegal” and asking that it be blocked from being enforced.
The lawsuit, filed by the Trump administration in California’s Central District federal court, said the country is “facing a crisis of illegal immigration” and that its efforts to address it “are hindered by Sanctuary Cities such as the City of Los Angeles, which refuse to cooperate or share information, even when requested, with federal immigration authorities.”
Federal prosecutors said in their filing that Trump campaigned and won the 2024 presidential election on a platform of deporting “millions of illegal immigrants.” By enacting a sanctuary city ordinance, the City Council sought to “thwart the will of the American people regarding deportations,” the lawsuit states.
This month, immigration agents have descended on Southern California, arresting more than 1,600 immigrants and prompting furious protests in downtown Los Angeles, Paramount and other communities. According to the lawsuit, L.A.’s refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities since June 6 has resulted in “lawlessness, rioting, looting, and vandalism.”
“The situation became so dire that the Federal Government deployed the California National Guard and United States Marines to quell the chaos,” the lawsuit states. “A direct confrontation with federal immigration authorities was the inevitable outcome of the Sanctuary City law.”
Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi called the city’s sanctuary policies “the driving cause of the violence, chaos, and attacks on law enforcement that Americans recently witnessed in Los Angeles.”
“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,” Bondi said in a statement Monday.
Bass did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In recent weeks, she has pushed back against the Trump administration’s portrayal of L.A. as a city enveloped in violence, saying that immigration agents are the ones sowing chaos, terrorizing families and harming the city’s economy.
“To characterize what is going on in our city as a city of mayhem is just an outright lie,” Bass said earlier this month. “I’m not going to call it an untruth. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I’m going to call it for what it is, which is a lie.”
Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez represents much of Hollywood, where immigration agents recently raided a Home Depot on Sunset Boulevard. Asked about the lawsuit, he said the president is “tearing families apart” as he seeks to “force every city and town to help him carry out his white nationalist agenda.”
“We refuse to stand by and let Donald Trump deport innocent families. We’re going to do everything within our power to keep families together,” Soto-Martínez said in a statement.
L.A.’s sanctuary city law was proposed in early 2023, long before Trump’s election, but it was 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 violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, by obstructing the federal government’s ability to enforce laws enacted by Congress. They claim the city is treating federal immigration authorities differently from other law enforcement agencies by restricting entry to property, denying access to individual detainees and prohibiting city contractors from providing them information.
“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.
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.”
The lawsuit also cites a June 10 meeting in which council members grilled Police Chief Jim McDonnell about his department’s handling of the immigration raids. During that session, Councilmember Imelda Padilla, who represents a heavily Latino district in the San Fernando Valley, asked McDonnell if the LAPD would consider warning council members about impending raids.
“Chief McDonnell correctly identified that request for what it was: ‘obstruction of justice,’ ” the lawsuit states.
The federal filing comes as the city’s elected officials are weighing their own lawsuit against the Trump administration, one aimed at barring immigration agents from violating the constitutional rights of their constituents.
The City Council is scheduled to meet Tuesday to ask City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto to prioritize “immediate legal action” to protect L.A. residents from being racially profiled or unlawfully searched or detained.
Bass has been outspoken about the harm she says the immigration raids have been inflicting on her city, saying they have torn families apart and created a climate of fear at parks, churches, shopping areas and other locations. The city was peaceful, she said, until federal agents began showing up at Home Depots, parking lots and elsewhere.
“I want to tell him to stop the raids,” she said earlier this month, referring to Trump. “I want to tell him that this is a city of immigrants. I want to tell him that if you want to devastate the economy of the city of Los Angeles, then attack the immigrant population.”
Chris Newman, legal director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said he views the federal lawsuit as largely symbolic — and believes its actual purpose is to “blackmail” the city into complying with the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.
“On the law it’s clearly wrong. The complaint seems to be unaware of the existence of the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution,” Newman said, referring to the amendment that leaves powers to states and localities that are not explicitly given to the federal government.
“While it’s true the U.S. government retains authority over immigration law, that authority does not permit them to unconstitutionally invade local governments or strip them of their local authority,” he said.
Newman also said he found it hypocritical of the federal government to claim Immigration and Customs Enforcement is facing discrimination, “given the demonstrable racism and discrimination underlying the Trump administration’s own immigration activities.”
Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, said he also thinks the lawsuit is at odds with the 10th Amendment — and that the federal government cannot force a city to use its resources for immigration enforcement.
Although cities are barred from obstructing federal immigration officials, they are not required to cooperate with them, he said in an email.
“For example, a city can decide it won’t turn people over to ICE out of fear that victims of crime won’t come forward,” Chemerinsky said. “A city can decide it won’t have its schools turn over children for fear they won’t attend. Public hospitals can decide not to turn over people for fear that those who are ill, including with communicable diseases, won’t come forward.”
An aide to City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto defended the sanctuary law, saying it “fully complies with federal law and constitutional principles.”
“Our City remains committed to standing up for our constitutional rights and the rights of our residents,” Feldstein Soto spokesperson Karen Richardson said in a statement. “We will defend our ordinance and continue to defend policies that reflect our longstanding values as a welcoming community for all residents.”
Times staff writer Dakota Smith contributed to this report.
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