Democrats in California's congressional delegation accused the Trump administration of "politically motivated" immigration enforcement in a letter sent to the White House Tuesday.
Increased indiscriminate arrests are keeping people from seeking health care, sending their kids to school or reporting crime to police, and are "compromising the civil rights and liberties of all Californians � regardless of citizenship or immigration status," the letter states.
Nearly every Democrat in the California delegation signed onto a letter led by California Sens. Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein and Reps. Lou Correa of Santa Ana and Zoe Lofgren of San Jose.
"We urge you to stop your administration's wholesale targeting of our state's residents and public officials," the letter states
The last two months have seen a marked increase of visible immigration enforcement efforts in California that have included raids at convenience stores and a threat of ending federal law enforcement grants for jurisdictions that don't comply with requests to hold people who entered the country illegally.
Last week, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit over California's new immigration laws that make it a crime for business owners to voluntarily help federal agents find and detain workers, prohibit local law enforcement from alerting immigration agents when detainees are released from custody and create a state inspection program for federal immigration detention centers.
