LA mayor joins controversial lawsuit to block Trump’s immigration enforcement measures

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Tuesday announced that her city will be joining the class-action lawsuit to stop what she says is "the unconstitutional reckless raids in the LA region."

Bass said Los Angeles was joining the lawsuit because the Trump administration is treating the city "as a test case for how far it can go in driving its political agenda forward while pushing the Constitution aside." 

"The City of Los Angeles, along with the County, cities, organizations and Angelenos across L.A., is taking the Administration to court to stop its clear violation of the United States Constitution and federal law," Bass said in a press release. "We will not be intimidated – we are making Los Angeles the example of how people who believe in American values will stand together and stand united."

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Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto said the lawsuit is intended to send a message to the Trump administration that the city will not allow the raids to become "standard operating procedure." 

"The federal government has concentrated thousands of armed immigration agents, many of whom lack visible identification, and military troops in our communities, conducting unconstitutional raids, roundups and anonymous detentions, sowing fear and chaos among our residents," said Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto. "Today’s motion to intervene shows we will not stand by and allow these raids to continue or to become the standard operating procedure in our communities."

A coalition of individual immigrants and immigrant advocacy organizations, led by The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of California and the non-profit Public Counsel, filed the original class-action lawsuit "Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem," against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) demanding an immediate halt to what it describes as unlawful immigration raids across the Los Angeles area targeting migrants with "brown skin."

The non-profit accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of carrying out unconstitutional raids and then keeping migrants in inhumane conditions without beds and deprived of food and legal counsel. Homeland Security has denied all the claims in the lawsuit, saying that any accusations of racial profiling are "disgusting and categorically false."

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The lawsuit also asks those who are now being held in overcrowded "dungeon-like" facilities to get access to counsel, especially where the conditions are deplorable and unconstitutional.  

The announcement comes on the heels of federal agents marching through Los Angeles' MacArthur Park and militarized vehicles being deployed to the streets that Bass said were filled with children attending a summer camp.

The release from Bass’s office suggested that the actions were for the "seemingly sole purpose of bringing fear to Los Angeles."

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Bass said she and other elected officials will not accept the presence of federalized troops and military-style vehicles on their streets and will use every resource available to bring an end to what she characterized as "reckless raids."