Amid continuing federal immigration detentions across the region, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Tuesday, July 1, pushed back on the Trump Administration, calling its legal action a day earlier challenging the constitutionality of “sanctuary city” policies the beginnings of a federal “all-out assault against” L.A.

For weeks, Bass has condemned the massive immigration crackdown that blanketed her city and many others across the U.S. But Bass couched the administration’s lawsuit on Monday in the context of a federal strategy to, in essence, break the city’s back on the immigration enforcement.

“ The lawsuit is an attempt to overturn the will of the city, calling for a halt to longstanding policy to protect immigrant Angelinos,” she said in a news conference at City Hall. “We are a city of immigrants who have had policies in place for decades.

“Our city remains committed to standing up for our constitutional rights and the rights of our residents. We will defend our ordinance and continue to defend policies that reflect the longstanding values of our city.”

Since ramping up June 5, the immigration raids fostered by the Trump administration have resulted in hundreds of people being detained and a fearful population sheltering-in-place to avoid indiscriminately being apprehended.

The ramp-up has been driven by Trump’s campaign pledge to deport the “worst of the worst” immigrants in the country illegally and achieving the largest mass deportation every.

Administration officials have defended the arrests, which they say are sweeping up “dangerous criminals” in the process.

But leaders and local immigrant advocates have said many who have been caught up in the sweeps are not the dangerous criminals that that Trump pledged to arrest.

The raids have led to mass protests and vigils across L.A. County as cities and large and small are now urging their citizen protesters to keep things non-violent, even as many in the region’s immigrant communities stay home, fearful of being arrested.

With federal troops and agents in the region, Bass said L.A. is now shrouded in the shadow of the federal government’s military and immigration authorities.

“ What the federal government should do is stay in Washington and remove the troops and do not have ICE raids in our city. That’s what the federal government should do.”

Bass said the administration’s lawsuit “is an attempt to overturn the will of the city.”

The lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in downtown L.A, claims the city is violating federal law with its sanctuary city policies by discriminating against immigration authorities and limiting cooperation granted to other law enforcement agencies.

The lawsuit also purported that sanctuary laws are illegal, and “obstruct the Federal Government’s enforcement of federal immigration law and impede consultation and communication between federal, state, and local law enforcement officials that is necessary for federal officials to carry out federal immigration law and keep Americans safe.”

The filing asks the court to declare Los Angeles’ policies invalid under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which the suit says “prohibits the city and its officials from obstructing the federal government’s ability to enforce laws that Congress has enacted or to take actions entrusted to it by the Constitution.”

Among the speakers Tuesday morning at City Hall was Ernesto Medrano, executive secretary for the Los Angeles and Orange County Building Trades, who spoke on the recent raids’ impact on labor.

“ Our members in job sites have been turned into targets, not because of wronging, but because of assumptions, because of profiling, because of fear,” Medrano said. “The trades include people from all walks of life: those who vote red, those who vote blue, and some of whom may not even vote at all. But at the end of the day, in the labor movement we believe in something bigger, and that is solidarity.”

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors will address the immigration raids as well with an upcoming vote on two motions put forward by Supervisor Hilda Solis.

The first motion calls for the county to sue the federal government and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency for using unjust seizure tactics including the lack of uniforms or badges, using unmarked cars and forcefully dragging people off the streets.

The second motion at the County level would launch a countywide initiative to provide residents with a “Know Your Rights” education.

Bass noted that Trump’s “political stunt” has resulted in families missing graduations and people afraid to go to work or school, “inflicting a serious blow to our local economy.”

When asked about the opportunity for a negotiation or common ground between the city and the Trump administration, Bass said “the only opportunity I want to see is for those individuals to be returned to their families.”

Bass also made it clear she is not sure the administration is open to compromise on their end.

“ I think they want the chaos. I think we’re the petri dish for the nation,” Bass said. “I don’t know how the other cities are faring, but I will tell you that mayors across the city, across the country are very concerned. I’ve been on Zoom calls with over a hundred mayors looking at what is happening in L.A. This is the test case, and we’re gonna pass the test.”