The court also dismissed “with prejudice” the Trump administration’s claims against Los Angeles City Mayor Karen Bass, City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson and the Los Angeles City Council.
The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles.
According to The Guardian, the Justice Department sued the city over an ordinance that broadly prohibits local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration enforcement operations
In his decision, U.S. District Judge Fernando Olguin flatly rejected the Trump administration’s claim that the ordinance is somehow unconstitutional. However, while Olguin dismissed the lawsuit in its current form, he said that the government is free to file an amended complaint.
Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has since posited the ruling as a significant victory.
“This order reinforces the well-established principle that local governments have the authority to decide how to use their personnel and resources,” Feldstein Soto said. “The goal of this ordinance, and of LAPD’s immigration-related policies—which date back to Special Order 40 in the 1970s—is to encourage victims of and witnesses to crime to feel safe coming forward to seek help from LAPD regardless of their immigration status. It does not obstruct or impede lawful federal immigration enforcement operations.”
“In the June 20, 2026 order, the court dismissed the federal government’s complaint on the grounds that the government failed to plausibly allege that the Ordinance violates the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity.,” Feldstein Soto’s office said in a press release. “Additionally, the court found that the federal government’s preemption arguments were insufficient, noting that the federal statutes cited do not support the government’s claims that the ordinance unlawfully restricts cooperation with federal immigration authorities.”
The court also dismissed “with prejudice” the Trump administration’s claims against Los Angeles City Mayor Karen Bass, City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson and the Los Angeles City Council.
The Guardian notes that the lawsuit was filed last June, several weeks after the Trump administration deployed National Guard troops to Southern California to quell growing protests against immigration raids.
In its initial filings, the government said that Los Angeles violated federal law by enacting policies that prohibit city resources from being used to aid or assist immigration enforcement operations and collect information about residents’ citizenship status. This, the Trump administration said, is tantamount to an individual state trying to regulate the federal government.
Olguin, though, found that the ordinance simply “controls the actions of the city’s own agents and agencies.”
Sources
Court Grants Motion to Dismiss in Trump Lawsuit Challenging L.A.’s “Sanctuary City” Ordinance
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