L.A. Legal Groups Sue to Stop ‘Unconstitutional’ Immigration Actions

Immigrant rights groups filed suit on Wednesday to halt “unconstitutional” enforcement actions in Southern California that they said include racial profiling, warrantless arrests and denying access to counsel to people held in a “dungeonlike” facility.

Filed before dawn in federal court in Los Angeles, the suit accuses the Trump administration of unleashing “indiscriminate immigration operations” that have ensnared day laborers, carwash workers, farm workers, caregivers and others described as “the lifeblood of communities across Southern California.”

“Individuals with brown skin are approached or pulled aside by unidentified federal agents, suddenly and with a show of force, and made to answer questions about who they are and where they are from,” the complaint said.

The case could have implications for how federal immigration agents are allowed to conduct operations in Los Angeles, home to the largest undocumented population in the United States. More broadly, it opens a new legal battle over the administration’s nationwide crackdown as President Trump pursues his promised mass deportation. A judgment would not be binding on other cities, said Mark Rosenbaum, a lawyer with the nonprofit firm Public Counsel who is a counsel in the case.

But, he predicted, “it will have national reverberations.”

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, called the accusations “disgusting and categorically FALSE” in an emailed response.

“These type of smears are designed to demonize and villainize our brave ICE law enforcement,” she said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “This kind of garbage has led to a more than 700 percent increase in the assaults on enforcement officers.”