Trump sues LA over immigration policies
He is suing over the city's sanctuary law, claiming it prevents local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities
What happened
The Trump administration sued Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and the LA City Council Monday over the city's sanctuary law, which prevents local law enforcement from using city resources to aid federal immigration actions.
Who said what
The lawsuit, filed by the Justice Department in California's Central District federal court, alleges that LA's sanctuary city law is unconstitutional and discriminatory in "treating federal immigration authorities differently than other law enforcement agents." Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, told the Los Angeles Times the lawsuit likely conflicts with the 10th Amendment by trying to force the city to use its resources on immigration enforcement.
City officials have accused President Donald Trump of "inflaming tensions" by sending the National Guard and Marines into the area to aid in unpopular ICE raids, "exacerbating a situation local authorities had under control," said Reuters. The lawsuit is part of Trump's "wider effort" to "crack down" on sanctuary cities, whose policies "have become an obstacle" to his deportation goals, said The Wall Street Journal.
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What next?
Los Angeles city officials are "weighing their own lawsuit" against the White House that would bar federal immigration agents from "violating the constitutional rights of their constituents," said the Times. The city council will meet today to discuss that suit.
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