LOS ANGELES — Masked, unidentified agents have been “systematically” cornering brown-skinned people in a show of force across Southern California, tackling those who attempt to leave, arresting them without probable cause and then placing them in “dungeon-like” conditions without access to lawyers, a federal lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday by immigrant rights groups against the Trump administration describes the region as “under siege” by agents, some dressed in military-style clothing and carrying out “indiscriminate immigration raids flooding street corners, bus stops, parking lots, agricultural sites, day laborer corners.” It seeks to block the administration’s “ongoing pattern and practice of flouting the Constitution and federal law” during immigration raids in the L.A. area.
”These guys are popping up, rampant all over the city, just taking people randomly and we want that particular practice to end,” said Mohammad Tajsar, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which filed the lawsuit with Public Counsel and other immigration and civil rights groups and attorneys. “The goal is that they think twice about doing this in other cities like Chicago or New York.”…