Local leaders in Los Angeles spoke out against immigration enforcement operations across the city at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
L.A. City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto announced that her office, along with Los Angeles County and the cities of Pasadena, Santa Monica, Culver City, Pico Rivera, Montebello, Monterey Park, and West Hollywood, have filed a motion to intervene in a federal lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump’s administration against the city of L.A. on June 30.
The federal lawsuit claimed the city is obstructing the enforcement of immigration laws and creating an environment with its sanctuary policies that bar local police from sharing information on people without legal status, the Associated Press reported.
A statement from Feldstein Soto on the motion to intervene in the lawsuit read in part:
“This lawsuit asks the court to prevent the federal government, including the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from engaging in unconstitutional and unlawful stops, round ups and raids without reasonable suspicion or probable cause and apparently based upon perceived ethnicity, from utilizing disproportionate force in carrying immigration enforcement activities, and from confining individuals at federal buildings in unlawful conditions without access to their attorneys.”
Federal immigration raids have taken place in the Los Angeles metro area and surrounding cities since June 6.
Similar federal lawsuits have been filed against other sanctuary jurisdictions, including New York, New Jersey and Colorado, that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, the AP reported.
The White House and federal officials have vowed to continue immigration enforcement operations in Southern California and across the U.S.
“ICE will continue to enforce the law,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on X.
The full press conference can be seen in the video player above.