Legal battles over immigration enforcement continue in California

California has officially sued the Trump administration for the 100th time in under two years, averaging more than one lawsuit a week since January 2025.

Unsurprisingly, the milestone suit concerns the administration’s immigration enforcement tactics. The lawsuit goes after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) frequent arrests in and around state courthouses when immigrants go in for routine hearings and appointments. 

“In court, no one is above the law, not even the federal government,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said during a Thursday press conference. 

Under California law, courthouse arrests have long been barred, with Bonta saying ICE’s recent actions have created a “chilling effect that impedes access to justice.”

Courthouse arrests have increased by 550% since Trump returned to office in January 2025, according to Bonta.

The lawsuit argues these arrests violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the 10th Amendment, which gives states power over matters that are not specifically given to the federal government under the Constitution.

A new law from Sen. Eloise Gomez Reyes (D-San Bernardino) also restricts courthouse arrests, though Bonta noted the law takes effect Jan. 1 and focuses more on individuals' private rights, while his lawsuit targets the broader practice of courthouse arrests.

The attorney general reflected on the 100 lawsuits in just over 90 weeks, saying the number is a reflection of the administration “[straying] from the principles this country was founded on.”

Legal challenges continue

The state is currently in another legal battle with the GEO Group, one of the largest detention facility operators in California. The company recently filed a lawsuit against a new law aimed at increasing detainees’ rights.

The GEO Group filed the lawsuit against SB 942, the Civil Detainees’ Bill of Rights Act, on Sept. 30, just one day after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law. The suit is likely the first of many that will spring up in response to the wide-reaching immigration bill package Newsom signed last month. 

Since immigration enforcement is a federal issue, there are not many bills California can pass to curb enforcement – at least not many bills that will go unchallenged. Instead, many Democrats in the Legislature focused on passing oversight bills to address poor conditions inside the state’s eight detention centers.

SB 942 will create a detainees’ bill of rights, enshrining into law the right for detainees to have clean drinking water, sanitary living conditions, adequate food, access to medical care, communication with loved ones and legal counsel and the right to freely practice their religion.

“These are basic standards of humane treatment required of all civil detention facilities in California,” Sen. Anna Caballero, author of SB 942, told CALÓ News in a statement. “I stand by this law and know that the Attorney General’s office will defend it vigorously to ensure California protects the health, dignity and humanity of every person in our state.”

The lawsuit was filed in the Eastern District of California and argues the state cannot impose its “preferred immigration-detention standards” on facilities under federal contracts.

The GEO Group operates six facilities in the state, with four of them run under contracts with ICE.

The lawsuit also argues that the bill violates the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which gives federal law precedence over state laws.

Bonta said on Thursday he believes the state has a solid case against GEO’s lawsuit, adding he believes the law is constitutional since it has a broad scope and does not single out the federal government. SB 942 applies to all detention facilities in California, not just those that are operated under federal contracts.

“I’m not surprised there is a lawsuit. The GEO Group has sued before. I’m sure they will sue again,” Bonta said. “They really like to have for-profit private detention centers where they get massive billion-dollar contracts with the federal government with little oversight and accountability.”

During the press conference, Bonta also touched on a recent threat from the Department of Justice that demanded the state offer up its voter rolls, review and remove an unspecified number of voters who the Department of Justice believes are not citizens, or face legal action.

Bonta confirmed Thursday that the state will not meet the request. In a letter to the DOJ, Secretary of State Shirley Weber said she “will not disenfranchise thousands of Californians” based on the DOJ’s “belief.” 

In response, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against the state Thursday morning alleging “state-facilitated voter fraud.” Bonta said he believes the government’s case is “weak.”

In a statement, Newsom called the lawsuit a “desperate attempt by Trump to use his politicized Justice Department to try to suppress California voters just three weeks before Election Day.”

The Nov. 3 election will continue “business as usual,” Bonta said.