This article by Miguel Camnitzer originally appeared in KnockLA and is republished here with his permission. 

The charges, filed just days before the statute of limitations would have expired, draw comparisons to the repression of protesters by Trump’s federal prosecutors.

Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto waited until the one-year statute of limitations was nearly expired to files charges against least 20 anti-ICE demonstrators for failing to disperse at protests last year. Critics call the move unprecedented and have accused her of pulling from Trump’s authoritarian playbook to punish dissent.

Most of the charges stem from a major protest that erupted on June 8, 2025 in response to the Trump administration and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launching a massive immigration enforcement operation in the Los Angeles area.

In the first ten days of June, 722 people were abducted by immigration enforcement across LA, often violently snatched from street corners and frequently without obtaining warrants or even checking identification. According to analysis by the Los Angeles Times, 69% of those abducted in that period had no criminal record. Racial profiling by federal agents was rampant, leading to lawsuits that are still working their way through the courts.

On the morning of June 8, Trump deployed the National Guard to quell the ongoing protests in LA. That same afternoon, demonstrators confronted the newly arrived troops downtown in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center. LAPD aggressively dispersed the crowd, at which point they moved onto the 101 Freeway. Around 9:00 pm, police declared an “unlawful assembly” and began making arrests. No charges were filed at the time, and those cases sat idle until May of this year.

Defense attorney Damon Alimouri, who represents one of the demonstrators, calls the charges “an outrageous and unjust form of prosecution against someone who was simply asserting his rights under the First Amendment.” On May 14, 2026 — over 11 months after the protest — his client received a letter ordering him to appear in court for “refusal to disperse.” He was arraigned on June 22, along with several others, all for the identical misdemeanor charge.

Organizers in LA have been tracking the Trump Administration’s handling of cases against activists in Minnesota, and in Prairieland, TX where defendants were sentenced to several decades in prison for actions as mundane as moving a box of zines. They wonder if Feldstein Soto is taking her cues from these high-profile incidents of political repression.

“There is quite a bit of lip service on the part of certain Democratic politicians who claim that they’re anti-ICE, that their agents will not cooperate with ICE,” says Alimouri, “yet here they are prosecuting folks who are demonstrating against putting children in cages.”

People detained by immigration enforcement are typically held for processing in the basement of the Federal Building downtown, adjacent to the Metropolitan Detention Center. The site became a focal point for anti-ICE demonstrators in the days and weeks that followed Trump’s crackdown.

“They saw the state repression, the military and the brute force that was being used against their communities and understood that was something the police weren’t going to stop, the Democrats and Republicans weren’t going to stop,” says Katherine, a leader on the steering committee of the Community Self Defense Coalition (CSDC). Formed in February 2025, the CSDC brought together dozens of organizations across LA to train community members on how to protect their neighbors from ICE. “It’s the people that are going to be the change we need,” she says.

LAPD’s violent response to those demonstrations has been a source of ongoing controversy and litigation. Officers frequently injured protestors and journalists with foam projectiles, tear gas, batons and even horses. In the first half of June alone, LAPD arrested 435 protestors; three quarters were for unlawful assembly.

Legal experts say that while protest-related arrests for low-level misdemeanors like failure to disperse are common, it’s extremely rare for a city attorney to follow through with prosecution.

“I’m not aware of any case that office has ever filed solely for failure to disperse,” says Leslie Wolf, a member of the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Union Local 148, who works in the misdemeanor arraignment court.

Wolf notes that new filings keep trickling in for other protests last year, like one on June 10, when demonstrators again confronted the National Guard in front of the Federal Building. It’s unclear why Feldstein Soto is choosing to file charges, or why she waited nearly a year to do so (her office has not responded to requests for comment), but critics see this as repression and harassment of social justice movements.

“This is an overtly political filing,” says Alimouri. “Filing against folks who were demonstrating against ICE, an entity that has terrorized our communities throughout this country, arbitrarily, and in violation of the U.S. Constitution — that’s making a political statement whether you like it or not.”

Wolf agrees. “Anytime that you prosecute protesters or even threaten prosecution, it’s going to silence them.”

Waiting nearly a year to file these charges has an additional impact. Feldstein Soto can use the delay to keep activists and demonstrators muzzled for prolonged periods.

“The fear is that if something else happens, if they engage in another protest, she will file,” Wolf explains. From the time of arrest to the statute of limitations a year later, people will live in uncertainty, which “gives the prosecutor’s office even more control over these people.”

A pending case can be very disruptive to a person’s life, negatively impacting job and school applications, certifications, immigration status and more, says Wolf. “While that case is pending, it’s going to look like an arrest on their record and that can have big effects.”

Delayed filings also increase the likelihood that people won’t receive their arraignment letters and therefore won’t show up to court, which can trigger an arrest warrant. Notices like the one Alimouri’s client received are often sent to whatever address was on the identification of the person at the time of the arrest.

“Especially young people, that’s often not their correct address,” Wolf points out. “Maybe it’s a parent’s address or an old address.”

Even if it was the right address at the time, as months go by, the likelihood increases that people move. Wolf estimates at least seven warrants have already been issued for failing to appear at arraignments related to last June’s protests, and there is a strong chance that those defendants are unaware that charges were filed.

While it’s highly unusual for the city attorney to solely prosecute “refusal to disperse” misdemeanors absent other charges, critics point out that Feldstein Soto does have a history of going after demonstrators, particularly pro-Palestine activists. An outspoken advocate for Israel, Feldstein Soto directly targeted one activist whom she alleged was protesting outside the home of AIPAC president Michael Tuchin, who was also a donor to her campaign. The LAPD and her own prosecutors questioned her judgment at the time.

Feldstein Soto recently lost her bid for reelection, garnering only 18% of the primary vote. This was the first time in over 90 years that an incumbent city attorney lost their primary. Whether Feldstein Soto’s treatment of activists played a part in her historic loss is hard to ascertain, but for some it’s clear her politics around immigration enforcement are not aligned with everyday Angelenos.

“It really feels like a divide,” says Wolf. “The city felt unified in some ways, unified against what was happening to us from the federal government. But then at the same time, it felt like some of our leaders and the LAPD were siding with the federal government.”

So far no defendants have pleaded guilty, and lawyers like Alimouri plan to fight until the end. “I’m not going to advise my client to take any deals,” he says. “I’m going to ensure that my client doesn’t suffer a criminal record as a result of this.”

Legal experts note that cases like this can drag on for months given the number of officers involved in protest enforcement and the resulting amount of surveillance footage and other evidence produced.

“There’s probably terabytes of data involved in these cases,” Wolf estimates. “Providing that discovery to our office and then all the attorneys’ time it would take to review all that, would be a huge amount of work.”

Feldstein Soto will most likely be long-gone before these cases resolve, which means the next city attorney will be tasked with deciding whether or not to follow through with these cases.

Meanwhile, ICE abductions are surging again, with a record 50,000 people detained across the US in July alone. Here in Los Angeles, legions of trained, organized Angelenos continue to resist. On any given day, you’ll find people patrolling their neighborhoods looking for suspected ICE activity, educating communities about their rights, and supporting families whose loved ones were taken.

Organizers like Katherine of CSDC believe elected officials will not be the ones to defend the city from rising authoritarianism.

“At every level of government we have people who are committed to violating people’s constitutional rights,” she says. “We need to continue to train everyone on a block by block basis so that when ICE tries to come into our neighborhoods our folks are ready to respond and to defend their rights and the rights of their community members.”