The ACLU and other groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Orange County city of Los Alamitos for its new ordinance barring the city from enforcing a state law that limits local cooperation with immigration enforcement.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of several Los Alamitos residents and the group Los Alamitos Community United, claims the city’s ordinance violates the California Constitution and state law.
“The Los Alamitos City Council cannot pick and choose which state laws it follows," ACLU attorney Sameer Ahmed said at a news conference in front of the City Council chambers, before delivering the lawsuit to city officials.
Just days earlier, several hundred pro-immigrant protesters had stood in the same spot in hopes of convincing the City Council to reverse its earlier vote to pass the ordinance. Those protesters were countered by a group that turned out to support the city's defiance of the state law.
In the end, the council confirmed the ordinance in a 4-1 vote.