The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Monday against the city of Los Angeles over its sanctuary laws that instruct local officials not to assist with federal immigration operations.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, came weeks after the Trump administration deployed the National Guard and Marines to the city to quell violence stemming from protests against federal immigration enforcement operations. The DOJ claimed the city violated the Constitution’s supremacy clause on three counts, via unlawful regulation and discrimination against the federal government.
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“The challenged law and policies of the City of Los Angeles obstruct the Federal Government’s enforcement of federal immigration law and impede consultation and communication between federal, state, and local law enforcement officials that is necessary for federal officials to carry out federal immigration law and keep Americans safe,” the DOJ said in its lawsuit.
The Justice Department blamed the sanctuary policies for causing unrest, which led to troops being deployed to protect federal property and law enforcement in the city.
“The practical upshot of Los Angeles’ refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities has, since June 6, 2025, been lawlessness, rioting, looting, and vandalism. The situation became so dire that the Federal Government deployed the California National Guard and United States Marines to quell the chaos,” the DOJ alleged in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed against Los Angeles, Democratic Mayor Karen Bass, the city council, and LA City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson. It aims at an ordinance passed by the city government shortly before President Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office in January.
The DOJ also pointed to statements by city officials as evidence of obstruction, including City Councilwoman Imelda Padilla asking Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell during a public meeting earlier this month if LAPD could give city council officials a warning of impending immigration raids, which McDonnell said would be “completely inappropriate and illegal.”
“Sanctuary policies were the driving cause of the violence, chaos, and attacks on law enforcement that Americans recently witnessed in Los Angeles,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said Monday.
“Jurisdictions like Los Angeles that flout federal law by prioritizing illegal aliens over American citizens are undermining law enforcement at every level — it ends under President Trump,” Bondi added.
The Justice Department’s lawsuit against Los Angeles is the latest against a sanctuary jurisdiction. Earlier this year, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against Chicago, asserting identical violations of the supremacy clause due to Chicago laws restraining local cooperation with immigration enforcement.
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The legal challenges to sanctuary cities and states come after the Supreme Court has ruled multiple times in the past decade that the federal government holds supremacy over immigration enforcement.
The rulings came in challenges over state laws that sought to increase immigration enforcement rather than the state and local efforts to thwart enforcement with sanctuary laws, but in their 2012 decision in Arizona v. United States, the justices ruled that states “may not pursue policies that undermine federal law.” The Justice Department cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in Arizona in its lawsuits against Chicago and Los Angeles.