Santa Ana joins LA lawsuit on illegal immigration raids

The Santa Ana City Council has voted to join the city and county of Los Angeles and several other cities in a lawsuit that seeks to prevent U.S. agents from conducting immigration enforcement raids without reasonable suspicion or probable cause.

The council voted 6-0 during a closed session at Tuesday's meeting, with Councilmember Jessie Lopez absent, making Santa Ana, OC’s only sanctuary city, the first city in Orange County to join the lawsuit.

“The city stands in solidarity with neighboring jurisdictions to challenge enforcement actions that undermine public trust and violate due process,” Santa Ana said in a statement. “Respecting constitutional rights is not optional — it is fundamental to good governance and community safety.”

The lawsuit was filed July 2 in Los Angeles federal court by Public Counsel, the American Civil Liberties Union and attorneys representing Southern California residents, workers and advocacy groups on behalf of people who allege they were unlawfully stopped or detained by federal agents targeting locations where immigrant workers are traditionally hired.

It accused immigration officials of carrying out "roving patrols" and detaining people without warrants and regardless of whether they have actual proof they are in the country legally.

It further alleged that federal agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, engaged in unconstitutional and unlawful immigration enforcement raids by targeting Angelenos based on their perceived race and ethnicity and denying detainees constitutionally mandated due process.

The two main plaintiffs in the case said they were arrested by armed, masked agents merely for sitting at a bus stop.

Attorneys for Los Angeles County and the cities of Los Angeles, Montebello, Monterey Park, Pasadena, Pico Rivera, Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Culver City filed a motion with Frimpong formally asking to join the case as "intervenors" in support of the plaintiffs.

The Trump administration has filed court papers seeking a stay of a Los Angeles federal judge's orders barring federal agents from detaining people without reasonable suspicion beyond their race, ethnicity or occupation.

Attorneys for the federal government on Sunday filed a formal notice of appeal, announcing its intention to challenge the Friday ruling by U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong that sprang from the lawsuit. The government on Monday asked Frimpong to put the ruling on hold pending a review by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Federal attorneys also submitted paperwork to the 9th Circuit, also asking for a stay of the ruling.

In its emergency motion lodged with the appellate court for a stay pending appeal, government attorneys argued that the ruling places "coercive restraints on lawful immigration enforcement affecting every immigration stop and detention."

It was unclear when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals might consider the matter.

Additional reporting by City News Service.