Overview
- A federal judge granted the City of Los Angeles’s motion to dismiss the Justice Department’s challenge to the 2024 ordinance that limits city cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
- Judge Fernando M. Olguin concluded the law controls the actions of the city’s own agents and does not directly regulate federal authorities, a key point that undercut the administration’s intergovernmental immunity claim.
- The ordinance bars city personnel, property and data from being used to investigate, detain, transfer or collect immigration status information except when needed to provide a city service, and treats status-related data as confidential.
- The administration may file an amended complaint by July 3 and individual city officials were dismissed with prejudice, leaving the City of Los Angeles as the only defendant if the suit is refiled.
- The ruling follows recent federal setbacks for similar suits against Boston and Chicago and leaves the ordinance in force while further litigation remains possible, a development that may affect whether immigrant victims and witnesses feel safe reporting crimes to police.