Los Angeles joins ACLU lawsuit against Trump’s immigration raids
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A legal action by Los Angeles marks its first formal effort to halt the raids after the Trump administration sued the city in June.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LOS ANGELES – The city of Los Angeles and other Southern California municipalities are joining a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration aimed at halting immigration raids that have spread panic among immigrant communities and sparked widespread protests.
The lawsuit, filed last week by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), accuses federal agents of using unlawful police tactics such as racial profiling to meet immigration arrest quotas set by the administration.
The legal action by Los Angeles marks its first formal effort to halt the raids after the administration sued the city in June for limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
“These unconstitutional roundups and raids cannot be allowed to continue,” Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto told reporters on the night of July 8, flanked by officials from municipalities joining the lawsuit including Los Angeles County, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Culver City, Pico Rivera, Montebello, Monterey Park and West Hollywood.
Mr Trump called National Guard troops and US Marines into Los Angeles in June
The raids are part of the Republican US President’s hardline approach toward immigration
Troops have continued to work alongside federal agents, with National Guard forces on July 7 sweeping through MacArthur Park near downtown Los Angeles in an operation criticised by the city’s Mayor Karen Bass.
According to the ACLU lawsuit, the federal immigration authorities have carried out illegal actions in Southern California that include warrantless arrests by masked, anonymous agents and denying legal counsel to people held in a “dungeonlike” facility. REUTERS
