LOS ANGELES – Today, Mayor Karen Bass joined LA City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto and regional mayors in Los Angeles County to announce new legal action that the City will take to put a stop to the unconstitutional reckless raids in the LA region.
“The Administration is treating Los Angeles as a test case for how far it can go in driving its political agenda forward while pushing the Constitution aside,” said Mayor Bass. “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. 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.”
“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.”
Central to this effort is a request to intervene in a class action lawsuit “Perdomo v. Noem,” which was brought on behalf of people who have been unlawfully stopped or detained by federal agents. The lawsuit alleges that federal agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have engaged in unconstitutional and unlawful immigration raids by targeting Angelenos based on their perceived race and ethnicity and also denying detainees constitutionally-mandated due process.
Today’s announcement comes after federal agents marched through MacArthur Park and militarized vehicles were deployed to the streets as children were attending a summer camp with the seemingly sole purpose of bringing fear to Los Angeles. Mayor Bass and other elected officials will not accept the presence of federalized troops and military-style vehicles on our streets becoming normalized behavior, and will use every resource available to bring an end to these reckless raids.