SACRAMENTO (KGTV) -- The U.S. Justice Department Monday announced a lawsuit against California challenging a state law that bans the use of private detention facilities.
Also named in the lawsuit is Governor Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and the State of California.
According to the lawsuit, the ban implemented under AB 32 would force prisoners and detainees to be relocated “at great cost.”
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AB 32 also means the same prisoners and detainees would potentially be isolated from their families and cause overcrowding in neighboring states, the lawsuit states.
The Justice Department says, under the ban, agencies would be forced to fork over money for the “costly transportation of prisoners and detainees.”
The lawsuit challenges AB 32 as unlawful under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution because it: “substantially obstructs the federal government’s housing of federal prisoners and detainees, stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment of congressional objectives related to criminal law and immigration enforcement, directly regulates federal operations, and discriminates against the United States by granting exceptions for California that do not apply to the federal government or its contractors."
Click here to read the full complaint.
