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MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2025-JANUARY 04, 2026
VISIT HEYSOCAL.COM
NO. 256
VOL. 14,
Trump says federal deployments make cities safer; local officials disagree
Sheriff Luna drops LASD personnel records lawsuit By City News Service
By Beth Schwartzapfel for The Marshall Project via Stacker
| Photo courtesy of Adil Khan Marwat/Pexels
Federal and local law enforcement teams patrol the Farragut West Metro station Nov. 27 in Washington, D.C. | Photo courtesy of Andrew Leyden/Getty Images/Stacker
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he Trump administration’s deployments of federal agents and National Guard troops to cities across the country, in the name of reducing crime, are having the opposite effect, according to local leaders — eroding the trust required for them to police effectively, making it harder for them to prosecute violent crimes, and leaving residents feeling less safe, The Marshall Project reports. These concerns are noted repeatedly in interviews with policing experts and community members, and in lawsuits challenging troop deployments in several American cities, including Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; and Memphis, Tennessee. In Chicago, ICE agents began using increasingly aggressive tactics in September during what President Donald Trump dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz.” It was a response, ICE said,
to crimes committed by migrants in Illinois without documentation. The scenes have been dramatic by design: an overnight raid on an apartment building, with Blackhawk helicopters and U.S. citizens dragged into the street in zip-ties. The tactics have resulted in at least one death: In September, an immigration agent shot and killed 38-year-old Silverio Villegas González while attempting to pull him over and arrest him. Locals in Chicago have turned out in force to protest, leading to daily demonstrations at an ICE processing center outside Chicago and elsewhere throughout the city. In response, Trump sent 500 National Guard soldiers to the area, but a judge blocked their deployment to the city. Nevertheless, the presence of immigration agents in the city — with their military-style uniforms and tactics — has
made it harder, prosecutors argue in a federal lawsuit, to pursue cases against people accused of violent crimes in Chicago. In one case, the wife of a man who had been murdered did not want to come to court to testify for fear of being arrested by Homeland Security agents. Her fear of arrest “makes it more likely that her husband’s murderers will go free and justice will be denied,” wrote Jose Villarreal, a prosecutor with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office, in court documents. Villarreal listed a wide array of crimes that his office can no longer prosecute because of ICE’s presence in the city: children who are victims of sexual assault, whose mothers fear that bringing them to court might lead to their arrest by immigration agents;
domestic violence cases where victims fear testifying because of immigration agents stationed at the courthouse, meaning “the predators who victimized them may walk free.” Amid the Trump administration’s insistence that its immigration enforcement is meant to ensure law and order, Villarreal argued that Homeland Security’s actions in and around courthouses in Chicago have made it harder “to protect the victims of violent crime and uphold the law through criminal prosecution.” A spokesperson for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office declined a request to interview Villarreal, citing the pending litigation. Calls to 911 have dropped precipitously in the city since the start of “Operation Midway Blitz,” the Chicago Tribune reported, espe-
See Federal deployments Page 05
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os Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna has dropped a lawsuit in which he sought judicial clarification of subpoenas for deputy personnel records issued by the Civilian Oversight Commission over alleged deputy misconduct issues. In his Los Angeles Superior Court complaint filed March 19, Luna sought to find out what could properly be released under COC subpoenas concerning investigations that include confidential peace officer personnel records of deputies allegedly involved in such matters as internal cliques and inmate jail deaths. While the LASD has complied with previous COC requests for information from LASD, it has not provided confidential peace officer personnel records because it is not legally permitted to do so, the Luna suit stated. On Dec. 17, Luna’s attorneys filed court papers with Judge Jerrold Abeles asking that the lawsuit be dismissed “without
prejudice,” meaning it can be refiled later. The court papers do not state if the parties resolved the issue or if the case was not being pursued for other reasons. COC members have repeatedly stated their disagreement with what the commission members contend is the sheriff and LASD’s wrongful refusal to provide deputy personnel information, prompting the COC to issue subpoenas. The suit stated that Luna is obligated to respect the privacy and other rights of LASD sworn staff and other employee. “The Sheriff submits this suit to help bring about clarity, so that the COC, LASD, and the county all will have clear guidance as to what material LASD legally can share and what it cannot,” the suit stated. The COC was established in January 2016, to improve the public transparency and accountability of the LASD by making recommendations to the Board of Supervisors, the department and the public.