Politics
JUST IN: GOP Rep. Introduces Bill To Punish ‘Lawless Cities’ Amid LA Chaos
A member of the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday introduced a measure to clamp down on “lawless cities” like Los Angeles that have defunded police, interfered with illegal immigration raids, or otherwise obstructed the Trump administration’s agenda.
The bill, filed by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-NC), seeks to squash local opposition to federal peacekeeping operations like the one Trump is conducting in L.A., site of riots following the arrest of 150 illegal immigrants at a local Home Depot. Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom have borne the brunt of blame for unrest that fomented in the days leading up to federal intervention.
Under the “Lawless Cities Accountability Act of 2025,” “no Federal funds may be made available to a jurisdiction that the Attorney General determines is a lawless jurisdiction.” The U.S. attorney general would be granted broad discretion to determine which cities fall out of compliance.
“Cities like LA who defund police, reject federal help, and let criminals run wild shouldn’t get a dime of federal money,” Mace wrote on X, crediting fellow GOP Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) with helping to introduce the measure.
If passed into law, cities like L.A. would remain ineligible for federal funds until they have passed 180 days remaining compliant. Allowing “widespread or sustained violence or destruction,” refusing to offer federal agents staging areas, defunding local law enforcement agencies, and refusing aid from the federal government would result in the termination of funds.
Mace’s action comes hours after U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) announced he would be using subcommittee powers to launch an investigation into the funding of violent protests across the City of Angels.
In a letter to the director of a local pro-immigration group that received funding from the Biden administration, the Missouri Republican requested the production of communications, financial statements, and other documents related to the preparation for protests, which began turning violent last Saturday.
“Who is funding the LA riots? This violence isn’t spontaneous,” he wrote on social media.
Biden-era grants from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security show that the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights received at least $34 million in taxpayer funding for pro-immigrant organizational efforts around L.A., some of which have been applied to protesting ICE’s arrest of at least 150 illegal immigrants over the weekend.
Thousands of National Guardsmen and Marines have taken up positions across the city, and by Wednesday morning, most of the violent encounters with rioters appear to have subsided. However, Gov. Newsom continues to wage a lawsuit against the Trump administration for activating National Guard soldiers under his command.
In a primetime address on Tuesday, the California Democrat accused Trump of acting “unlawfully” when he ordered 4,000 National Guardsmen to L.A. The White House fired back, characterizing Newsom’s argument as being in defense of “criminal illegal immigrant killers, rapists, gangbangers, drug dealers, human traffickers, and domestic abusers.”
Unfortunately for Newsom, the first four minutes of his eight-minute speech were marred by technical difficulties, with multiple local TV stations reporting static and silence coming from the governor’s video feed.
