The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles, claiming it impeded immigration officials from doing their jobs.
The lawsuit focused on sanctuary policies.
“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 told Fox News exclusively.
“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 the lawsuit, which was filed Monday, the Trump administration claims the city treated ICE different than other law enforcement.
The Supremacy Clause in the U.S. Constitution forbids this, per the Department of Justice.
“Sanctuary City laws and policies are designed to deliberately impede federal immigration officers’ ability to carry out their responsibilities in those jurisdictions,” the lawsuit said.
“The Los Angeles Ordinance and other policies intentionally discriminate against the Federal Government by treating federal immigration authorities differently than other law enforcement agents through access restrictions both 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 lawsuit stated..
“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. Accordingly, the law and policies challenged here are invalid and should be enjoined,” per the lawsuit.
There were protests and riots in the city last month when ICE was present conducting operations. President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard, which Mayor Karen Bass claimed fueled the violence.
“Last Thursday, ICE entered our city and provoked the city by chasing people through Home Depots and car washes and showing up at schools and, today, showing up at emergency rooms and homeless shelters,” Bass said in June.
“ICE intervened as a pretext to federalize the National Guard, and then, in the White House, the National Guard was complimented for the work that they did to keep peace in the city Saturday night. But I will tell you, the Guard didn’t even arrive here until Sunday. They used this as a pretext to send the U.S. Marines into an American city, which will target our own citizens,” Bass, a Democrat, said.