Southland Democrats continued to sound alarm over the tactics of federal immigration officials Saturday, questioning the legality of ongoing raids in Los Angeles County.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis said Saturday that she will introduce a motion at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting “directing county counsel to explore potential legal action against unconstitutional immigration enforcement practices, including illegal search and seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”
Solis particularly criticized the recent arrest of a man in unincorporated Valinda, which borders the city of La Puente, claiming that videos by witnesses show the man bleeding while being detained.
The motion addresses actions such as stopping, questioning, or detaining individuals without reasonable suspicion and arresting individuals without probable cause or a valid warrant.
“The county may initiate or join existing legal actions to hold federal agencies accountable and safeguard the constitutional rights of all community members,” she said.
Meanwhile, Huntington Park Mayor Arturo Flores slammed federal agents for blowing off the door of a home in that city early Friday to search for a man suspected of ramming a federal vehicle during immigration raids last week in the Bell/Maywood area.
Suspect Jorge Sierra-Hernandez was not home at the time, but his girlfriend and two young children were left shaken by the violent tactics at the home in the 3500 block of Flower Street. Sierra-Hernandez later turned himself in and was free on bail, according to multiple reports.
“What happened here this morning is hard to put into words,” Flores told ABC7. “This family did nothing wrong. They were involved in a minor traffic accident and this is the level of violence and the response that we get.”
Local officials have also assailed the practice of federal agents wearing masks, traveling in often-unmarked vehicles and making arrests without showing identification or producing warrants.
“They are federal agents from Homeland Security or ICE, but the truth is, unless these individuals provide proper identification, we don’t know,” said state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena. “And when we receive reports of these individuals using excessive force, without identification, we have no way to provide oversight and accountability.”
Federal officials have defended agents’ efforts to maintain anonymity during immigration operations, saying it is essential to maintain their safety from protesters who could publicize their names and other information, potentially endangering their lives and their families.
Democratic politicians, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom, have assailed the federal raids since they began in the Southland on June 6. Federal officials continue to defend their actions, insisting that they are carrying out lawful enforcement of immigration laws in line with President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to restore border security and deport those in the United States illegally.
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli also took issue with California’s so-called “sanctuary” status, in which local law enforcement officials refuse to assist immigration enforcement efforts.
“In every other state, we can go into a county jail, we can screen criminals for their immigration status, and we can take them directly from jail and deport them,” Essayli told KTLA5 on Friday. “We can train police officers to do immigration screening so when they run into people committing criminal activities, we can focus on those people and get them deported. We can’t do any of that in the state of California. So we have to go out into the community and we have to do broad immigration enforcement operations.”
” … We are doing our job,” Essayli continued. “We are enforcing the law as written by Congress. And if Karen Bass, who was in Congress, doesn’t like the law, she should have changed it when she was in Congress.”