On October 8, 2014, two individuals filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles under state law against the City of Baldwin Park Police Department. The plaintiffs, represented by public interest counsel, asked the court for damages, injunctive and declaratory relief, claiming that defendants falsely imprisoned one of the plaintiffs; that such imprisonment violated the defendants' obligations under the California TRUST Act; that such imprisonment deprived one of the plaintiffs of his rights under California law and the California Constitution; and that such activities are a wasteful and illegal expenditure of taxpayers' dollars, warranting an injunction.

Specifically, the plaintiffs claim that one of the plaintiffs was held for three days under a federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") hold after being eligible for release from local law enforcement agency custody, in violation of the California TRUST Act. The other plaintiff claims that Defendants' actions in honoring ICE hold requests in contravention of state and federal law are a wasteful and illegal expenditure of taxpayer dollars, and seeks an injunction permanently enjoining Defendants from honoring immigration detainers in violation of the TRUST Act.

As of November 2014, the case remains pending.

Dan Whitman - 12/02/2014


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