In 100th lawsuit against Trump, California challenges immigration arrests near courthouses - BERITAJA
California sued the Trump management for the 100th clip successful nether 2 years Thursday, challenging the believe of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arresting group for civilian migration violations astatine aliases adjacent authorities courthouses.
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said specified arrests person agelong been barred because they are unconstitutional and profoundly disruptive to the norm of rule and the authorities of victims, witnesses, defendants and different parties to tribunal proceedings.
“We’ve seen superior criminal charges dropped and full cases jeopardized because victims and witnesses are excessively frightened to travel to the courthouse to testify,” Bonta said. “Our justness strategy cannot usability this way.”
Bonta said his agency having to return the Trump management to court 100 times successful little than 2 years, often alongside different Democrat-led states, was a “sobering milestone” and a reflection not of governmental interference connected California’s portion — arsenic the president and his supporters person formed it — but of Trump’s about unbridled lawlessness.
“It’s very troubling erstwhile the about powerful personification connected the satellite and the president of our state is the 1 trampling complete the Constitution, breaking the rule truthful blatantly and brazenly, truthful consistently, truthful frequently,” Bonta said.
Independent ineligible experts said respective factors person driven the activity of lawsuits.
Presidents of some parties person progressively flexed their executive power, and authorities attorneys wide person progressively sued successful response. During Trump’s first word successful office, California — nether the activity of then-attorney wide and existent gubernatorial campaigner Xavier Becerra — sued the Trump management much than 120 times complete 4 years. Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton — now a Republican campaigner for Senate — sued the Biden management conscionable complete 100 times successful 4 years.
Trump successful this word quickly began implementing an array of policies leftover from his first word aliases outlined successful the Project 2025 argumentation blueprint, galore of which Bonta and different Democratic attorneys wide were prepared to writer over, experts said.
Trump was besides capable to name a big of loyalists pinch the thief of the Republican-controlled Congress, who helped beforehand policies that little loyal agency heads would person balked at, and which were judge to tie further ineligible challenges, experts said.
Daniel Farber, a professor astatine UC Berkeley Law School and writer of “Contested Ground: How to Understand the Limits connected Presidential Power,” said California’s raft of lawsuits is simply a consequence of the existent Trump management “doing much fierce things correct disconnected the starting block” — but besides many times targeting California specifically.
The White House did not instantly respond to a petition for remark Thursday. However, it has consistently derided Bonta’s litigation against the management arsenic baseless and misguided.
When Bonta claimed successful August that his lawsuits had saved California more than $200 billion, namely by reversing Trump cuts to national backing meant for the state, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Bonta should extremity “filing frivolous lawsuits” and “focus connected addressing problems successful his ain state.”
ICE, which besides did not instantly respond to a petition for comment, has defended its arrests adjacent courthouses arsenic a “common sense” attack to apprehending offenders astatine times and locations wherever authorities cognize they will be.
The 100th case
Bonta’s suit argues that specified arrests are arbitrary and capricious fixed the chilling effect they person connected justness successful the state. They break the Immigration and Nationality Act arsenic intended by Congress, and interfere pinch California’s authorities nether the 10th Amendment to execute its “core sovereign judicial and constabulary functions,” Bonta’s agency said.
His arguments echo those made by different authorities officials successful the past. During Trump’s first term, for example, then-California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye called the arrests “disruptive, shortsighted, and counterproductive.”
Arrests astatine aliases adjacent courthouses began to emergence again aft Trump took agency successful January 2025. An ICE memo, issued successful May 2025, said agents could behaviour “civil migration enforcement actions successful aliases adjacent courthouses erstwhile they person reliable accusation that leads them to judge the targeted alien(s) is aliases will beryllium coming astatine a circumstantial location.”
Incidents quickly began cropping up. In June 2025, ICE agents arrested 2 women extracurricular a Los Angeles courthouse aft a proceeding successful a section criminal case. The aforesaid unfolded crossed the state.
Alejandro Barraza, a criminal defense and migration attorney, said he has witnessed the effect firsthand.
In October 2025, a customer was arrested driving location from a proceeding astatine the Riverside Hall of Justice. In December, different customer was arrested leaving the Rancho Cucamonga courthouse. And a 3rd customer chose to plead blameworthy successful his criminal lawsuit alternatively than spell to assemblage trial, contempt Barraza’s proposal that the lawsuit was worthy fighting, for fearfulness of being arrested by ICE.
“The victims are losing. Our clients are losing their authorities to owed process. Everyone is losing,” Barraza said.
In June, U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts successful San Francisco struck down ICE’s expanded courthouse apprehension policies nationwide. Although the suit focused connected migration courthouses, the ruling besides covered authorities criminal courthouses, restoring earlier restrictions that barred civilian migration arrests successful aliases adjacent courthouses isolated from successful constricted circumstances. The Trump management is appealing the ruling.
Since then, California tribunal officials person tracked arrests by national agents and reported them to the Judicial Council of California. Thirty group were taken into custody successful June, 29 successful July, 19 successful August and 14 successful September.
State legislators person tried to push back. Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a rule strengthening California’s protections against civilian arrests for group walking to, attending aliases leaving courthouses for lawful purposes. The measurement extends those protections to nationalist ways wrong 1,000 feet of tribunal facilities, while preserving an objection for arrests made nether a valid judicial warrant.
Bonta said his suit is basal contempt the caller California law, successful portion because the Trump management thinks that “no authorities rule applies to them,” and courts person successful immoderate cases agreed — including the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which this week blocked a authorities law that would person required national migration agents to show recognition while moving successful the state.
The wider ineligible battle
Bonta’s agency has had important occurrence successful halting immoderate of the Trump administration’s biggest argumentation moves — including its plans to extremity birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of immigrants, its worldwide tariffs, its deployment of National Guard troops successful Los Angeles and different U.S. cities, and its withholding of billions of dollars successful national backing allocated to the authorities by Congress.
Michael McConnell, head of the Constitutional Law Center astatine Stanford Law School, said galore of California’s lawsuits person been “legally meritorious,” arsenic location is simply a “whole batch of ineligible error” coming retired of the Trump management — pinch a “lot of the overreach” having been “facilitated by the deficiency of soul checks” from loyal Trump agency heads.
However, he besides said that arsenic a California taxpayer, he doesn’t “appreciate having authorities utilizing my taxation dollars for what fundamentally are successful galore cases ideological lawsuits, moreover if meritorious,” because backstage litigants could and often do bring lawsuits of their own. He said he felt the aforesaid measurement about galore of the lawsuits brought against the Biden management by Republican states.
Bonta said he is proud of his squad for challenging the Trump management each clip they believed it had surgery the rule and harmed California, contempt Trump’s intentional effort to make that difficult.
“It was a daze and awe. It was flood the zone. It was trying to overwhelm pinch velocity and volume, and we kept gait each time,” he said.
What happens next, he said, will dangle connected Trump. If he keeps breaking the rule successful ways that wounded the authorities aliases its residents, he’ll support getting sued by California.
