On Tuesday, Mayor Karen Bass retaliated against the Department of Justice, accusing it of being a part of President Trump’s full-scale attack on Los Angeles through its lawsuit against her city.
The lawsuit aims to overturn sanctuary rules that, in most cases, forbid the use of public resources in federal immigration enforcement, but Bass and other city officials insisted they would not be intimidated.
Speaking to reporters at City Hall, the mayor accused federal officials of arbitrary street snatching, chasing Angelenos through parking lots, and detaining immigrants who appeared in court for yearly check-ins. She also made fun of Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff and a resident of Santa Monica who is generally seen as the mastermind behind the massive immigration crackdown.
According to Bass, it’s essentially indiscriminate because we know that American citizens have been held. In order to reach Stephen Miller’s quota of 3,000 persons being held nationwide each day, they have cast a wide net.
Since federal immigration officers launched a series of raids throughout Southern California in early June, which sparked protests in downtown Los Angeles, Paramount, and other towns, the mayor of Los Angeles has been at differences with the Trump administration. Her most recent comments were made a day after the city was sued by Trump’s Department of Justice over its sanctuary rule, which it claimed had made it more difficult for the federal government to fight an illegal immigration epidemic.
Federal prosecutors claimed that Trump was elected on a campaign of deporting millions of illegal immigrants, and they accused the City Council of trying to subvert the will of the American people. Additionally, they claimed that during the anti-ICE protests, lawlessness, rioting, looting, and damage were caused by Los Angeles’s failure to assist with federal immigration agents.
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesman, disputed Bass’ claims in an email, stating that Bass ought to give President Trump credit for assisting in the removal of dangerous criminals from the streets of Los Angeles.
According to Jackson, the only assault occurring is by Bass’s extreme left-wing followers who are attacking ICE officials for only carrying out their duties and upholding federal immigration law. Assaults against ICE officers have increased by 500% as a result of divisive speech like Bass’s.
The raids have been denounced by elected authorities in Huntington Park, Pasadena, Los Angeles, and other cities, who claim they are choking off economic activity, destroying families, and upsetting public life. Some localities have postponed their July 4 fireworks displays out of concern that ICE raids will ruin the celebrations.
Even Trump supporters have started to express their worries. Six Republicans in the state assembly wrote to Trump last week, encouraging him to concentrate his immigration crackdown efforts on violent offenders, claiming that the raids are causing widespread panic and forcing workers out of vital businesses.
The Deportation Data Project at UC Berkeley Law collected Immigration and Customs Enforcement data showing that 722 individuals were apprehended by immigration authorities in the Los Angeles region between June 1 and June 10. According to a Times review of the data, 58% of individuals detained during that time had never faced criminal charges, and 69% had no criminal convictions.
The sanctuary ordinance in Los Angeles prohibits city workers from requesting information about a person’s citizenship or immigration status unless it is necessary to perform a city function. Additionally, they must maintain the confidentiality of any data or information that can be used to determine an individual’s immigration status or citizenship.
Nearly since the state’s sanctuary regulations were implemented, Trump has attempted—mostly unsuccessfully—to overturn them.
A federal appeal to Senate Bill 54, which prohibited local police departments from assisting federal agencies in taking custody of immigrants being released from jails, was denied by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2019. The following year, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
In a another case, the 9th Circuit decided that the Trump administration could not require the city of Los Angeles to assist in the deportation of immigrants in order to obtain a federal police grant.
Tim McOsker, a member of the city council and a former employee of the city attorney’s office, stated on Tuesday that he believes the Trump lawsuit is a publicity stunt.
According to more than a century’s worth of case law, this claim is without merit, he added.
This report was written by Rachel Uranga, a staff writer for the Times.
