LOS ANGELES – A coalition of journalists, protesters, and legal observers has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of retaliatory violence during recent protests against immigration raids across Southern California. The suit, filed in the Central District of California, claims DHS officers used excessive and indiscriminate force to suppress First Amendment-protected activities and to justify the domestic deployment of military personnel against demonstrators.
The complaint, brought by the Los Angeles Press Club, NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America, and several individuals, alleges that DHS officials brutalized peaceful demonstrators, members of the press, and legal observers without provocation. Attorneys for the plaintiffs argue that the violence was part of a deliberate campaign to silence dissent and construct a pretext for the Trump administration’s military escalation in California.
“Each time the community rises in protest against the federal government’s attacks on our people, DHS retaliates with sweeping, excessive force,” said Peter Eliasberg, chief counsel at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, which is representing the plaintiffs. “Federal law enforcement has brutalized demonstrators, causing disorder in a circular ploy to justify deploying military domestically against now and future protesters.”…