Justice Department Sues LA Over Sanctuary City Policies

THE CENTER SQUARE—The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles’ sanctuary city policies, citing the Supremacy Clause regarding the preemption of federal statutes over state and local law in the U.S. Constitution.

According to Los Angeles City Council members, as many as 1 in 10 Los Angeles residents may be an illegal immigrant. 

The city of Los Angeles passed a new sanctuary city ordinance after President Donald Trump’s election, barring city resources from being used for immigration enforcement or cooperating with federal authorities engaged in immigration enforcement.

The ordinance also bans the direct and indirect sharing of data with federal immigration authorities, similar to a statewide sanctuary law that legislators say has required federal immigration agents to conduct raids in communities instead of being able to receive transfers of criminal migrants from prison or jail. 

“The Los Angeles Ordinance and other policies intentionally obstruct the sharing of information envisioned by Congress, thereby impairing federal apprehension and detention of removable aliens, including dangerous criminals, as required by federal law,” the Department of Justice wrote.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has shared the identities of many convicted felons illegally in the country who have been targeted and apprehended in recent Los Angeles raids, including gang members and known or suspected terrorists. 

Cuban national Daniel Ofarril, for example, was arrested after violating a 2004 removal order and illegally living in the U.S. for more than 20 years. His criminal history includes arrests on charges of murder, burglary, armed robbery, battery, driving under the influence, transporting and selling narcotics, and convictions for possessing crack cocaine with the intention to sell.

According to U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who served as a state Assemblyman until his federal appointment, Senate Bill 54—California’s sanctuary state law signed into law in 2018—is responsible for many of the large-scale raids that have resulted in so-called collateral arrests of suspected illegal immigrants during targeting of criminals.

“SB 54 (Sanctuary State) is the reason you are seeing large-scale enforcement operations in California,” wrote Essayli on the social media platform X. “Accordingly, ICE has no choice but to go into the community and look for the criminals who have been released by local authorities.”

State Sen. Brian Jones, R-San Diego, proposed a bill that would have provided requested release dates to federal immigration officials for individuals convicted of serious or violent felonies or “wobblers,” crimes serious enough to be prosecuted as either a felony or a misdemeanor. The bill failed in committee. 

Originally published by The Center Square

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