NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James today joined a coalition of 17 other attorneys general in supporting the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) lawsuit challenging the federal government’s use of unlawful immigration enforcement tactics in Los Angeles, California. In an amicus brief filed today in Perdomo v. Noem, Attorney General James and the coalition urge the court to grant a temporary restraining order halting the raids, which have upended the community, harmed local economies, and undermined public trust in law enforcement.
“In Los Angeles and nationwide, we are seeing immigration enforcement officers deploy dystopian tactics that are deeply harmful,” said Attorney General James. “No one should fear being questioned, detained, or deported by unidentified masked agents while taking their child to school, going to work, or attending church. These mass raids are tearing families apart, threatening public safety, and turning once-lively neighborhoods into ghost towns. Federal agents are sowing fear in entire communities, which is why we are urging the court to intervene and stop these unconstitutional raids at once.”
In the brief, Attorney General James and the coalition detail how the federal government’s current immigration enforcement efforts have “shattered the rhythms of everyday life” in Los Angeles. In recent months, masked agents conducting unannounced and unmarked operations in neighborhoods, churches, schools, and local businesses have left people afraid to leave their homes. Residents, including U.S. citizens, have been unlawfully detained, questioned, and harassed, often without any reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. Local businesses have closed and farmers markets have shut down due to fear of enforcement. Hospitals and health clinics report soaring appointment cancellation rates, which presents alarming concerns for public health. Students are skipping school and graduation ceremonies, days that are supposed to be among the most joyous of their lives. Houses of worship have also seen a dramatic decline in attendance.
The attorneys general highlight the long history of discriminatory and militarized immigration enforcement campaigns in California, including “Operation Wetback,” a 1954 mass deportation campaign that took its name from an ethnic slur, as well as the La Placita raids during the Great Depression. The attorneys general note that at the time, Mexican farmworkers were indiscriminately blamed for job shortages and shrinking public benefits, and ultimately, the campaign resulted in the deportation of nearly two million Mexican Americans, more than half of whom were U.S. citizens, without due process. Families were separated, and many children never again saw their parents. Historians and scholars have widely condemned these discriminatory raids as inhumane terror campaigns.
Attorney General James and the coalition draw parallels between those shameful chapters of American history and the current actions under the Trump administration, which seemingly prioritize maximizing the quantity of arrests over the right to due process. They highlight the president’s past remarks, in which he praised “Operation Wetback” as an enforcement model and hailed the Eisenhower administration for setting the record for deportations, a record he said his administration would break. The attorneys general emphasize that the administration’s recent immigration raids, including in Los Angeles, appear to bear many of the same hallmarks as the earlier mass deportation efforts that are now shameful chapters of American history.
The attorneys general argue that the federal government’s conduct creates confusion and fear that also directly impedes local law enforcement. Numerous incidents have been reported in which plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents driving unmarked vehicles were mistaken for criminals, leading to false reports of kidnappings and assaults. This, too, erodes the culture of trust between immigrant communities and the police. ICE’s secretive approach has even led to a rise in copycat crimes in which masked perpetrators imitate ICE agents in order to abduct or harass others.
In their filing, Attorney General James and the coalition emphasize that while the ACLU’s lawsuit is specifically focused on ICE enforcement tactics in Los Angeles, the federal government has been engaging in widespread raids in cities throughout the country, including New York. Arrests at immigration courts in Manhattan and on farms upstate have contributed to a culture of fear for many immigrant New Yorkers. The attorneys general are asking the court to immediately intervene and stop the unlawful immigration enforcement tactics in Los Angeles, arguing that the culture of fear that these raids have created permeates well beyond city and state borders and has had an overwhelming chilling effect on communities nationwide.
The attorneys general are supporting the plaintiffs' motion for a temporary restraining order, in which they argue ICE is not stopping people based on any reasonable, individualized suspicion, and instead is engaging in racial profiling.
Joining Attorney General James in filing this brief are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington.